CHINA'S trade surplus grew at a slower pace in May to US$13.05 billion from April's US$11.4 billion, and analysts estimated the slower export growth will curb a rising surplus in months to come.

The May exports grew 19.4 percent from a year earlier to US$157.16 billion, down sharply from the pace of 29.9 percent in April. Imports jumped 28.4 percent to US$144.11 billion, compared with 21.8 percent a month earlier.

The surplus in May was smaller than market expectation and brought the total surplus of the first five months to US$22.97 billion, a contraction of 35.1 percent from a year earlier.

"China's export growth slowed unexpectedly," said Xue Jun, an analyst at the CITIC Securities Co. "It is possibly the spillover effect of Japan's earthquake and tsunami in March."

But Xue said a smaller-than-expected surplus will do good to ease the pressure for a stronger yuan.

China's central bank may double the daily trading band of the yuan against the United States dollar to 1 percent over the next few weeks, according to a bank's research note earlier this week. It will exhibit China's move towards a more flexible foreign exchange policy.

Chinese currency broke 6.48 against the green bill this week, up more than 5 percent from last June when China announced to accelerate the reform of the exchange regime.