Japan Feb trade surplus 979.6 bln yen

TOKYO, March 22 (Reuters) - Japan's trade surplus rose 7.7 percent in February from a year earlier to 979.6 billion yen ($8.34 billion), government data showed on Thursday.

The figure compared with analysts' median forecast of a surplus of 700.0 billion yen.

Exports rose 9.7 percent from a year earlier to 6.4176 trillion yen, while imports were up 10.1 percent percent at 5.4380 trillion yen, data from the Ministry of Finance showed.

Exports to the United States grew 7.0 percent from a year earlier to 1.4235 trillion yen, while those to China rose 9.2 percent to 884.6 billion yen.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the overall trade surplus fell 37.7 percent from the previous month to 655.11 billion yen, the data showed.