* What: China's June trade figures
* When: Due on Saturday, July 11; may come earlier
* Decline in exports and imports to ease noticeably
BEIJING, July 8 (Reuters) - Chinese exports and imports probably perked up in June compared with previous months, but were likely still down by one-fifth from a year earlier.
The median forecast of 30 economists polled by Reuters is for a 20.7 percent drop in exports from the level of June 2008, a clear improvement on May's 26.4 percent fall.
In the same vein, economists projected a 20.4 percent annual drop in imports in June, compared with a decline of 25.2 percent in May.
The resulting trade surplus would be $15.2 billion, up from $13.4 billion in March.
An earlier poll of 27 economists produced a median forecast of a 20.5 percent drop in exports and 20.7 percent fall in imports, giving a surplus of $15.6 billion. [ID:nPEK11415]
Chen Jian, a vice-commerce minister, also pointed last week to an improvement in June, disclosing that China's trade for the first half of the year had not contracted as sharply as in the January-May period.
The figures are scheduled to be released on Saturday, but the Ministry of Commerce might issue them earlier.
Beijing has introduced an array of measures to help the export sector, including increasing tax rebates, and the sub-index for new export orders in last week's purchasing managers' surveys for June continued an upward trend that has been in place since November.
China's economy probably grew by 7.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, as a burst of government spending and bank lending laid the groundwork for more private sector activity from car buying to home building, a related Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. [ID:nPEK11415]
With liquidity flush, consumption resilient and signs that the slump in exports is bottoming out, the economy seems on track to accelerate towards the government's target of 8 percent growth this year.
Forecasts for June trade (surplus is in billions of dollars; exports and imports are percent change from a year earlier):
Surplus Export Import
Action Economics 13.0 -21.0 -17.5
Bank of China 12.0 -25.0 -22.0
Bank of Communications 13.2 -23.0 -20.0
Bank of East Asia 17.1 -21.0 -21.7
BNP Paribas 11.2 -24.5 -20.0
Bohai Securities 17.6 -19.2 -24.2
China Minzu Securities 18.4 -22.0 -20.0
CICC 15.5 -18.0 -16.0
Citi 13.5 -26.4 -25.2
CITIC Securities 13.5 -23.0 -25.1
Deutsche Bank 20.7 -17.0 -20.0
Essence Securities 15.0 -17.0 -15.0
Fortune Trust 16.0 -20.8 -22.0
Guosen Securities 15.0 -18.0 -20.0
Guotai Junan Securities 15.0 -24.4 -23.7
Haitong Securities ~ -20.5 -22.8
Hang Seng Bank 17.1 -20.0 -20.0
Industrial Bank 15.2 -15.2 -16.3
Industrial Securities 14.7 -22.1 -20.0
J.P. Morgan 18.4 -19.6 -21.0
Merrill Lynch 16.2 -24.5 -25.0
Northeast Securities 14.8 -23.0 -22.0
Nomura 12.7 -19.0 -15.0
Orient Securities 18.7 -19.0 -17.5
Qilu Securities 14.0 -23.0 -27.0
Royal Bank of Scotland 17.3 -20.4 -20.7
Shenyin & Wanguo Securities 19.0 -23.8 -21.1
SJS Markets 19.0 -19.0 -21.0
Southwest Securities 14.6 -15.0 -18.0
UBS 17.0 -18.0 -18.0
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Median 15.2 -20.7 -20.4
Previous Month 13.4 -26.4 -25.2
Previous Year 21.4 17.6 31.0
> For the full June data poll, double-click on [ID:nPEK11415]
> For the China indicators fixed page, double-click on