BEIJING, May 9 (Reuters) - China's exports rose faster than expected in April, while imports narrowed their declines, customs data showed on Friday, giving Beijing some relief ahead of ice-breaker tariff talks with the U.S. this weekend.

Outbound shipments from the world's second-largest economy rose 8.1% year-on-year, beating the 1.9% growth expected in a Reuters poll of economists but slowing from the 12.4% jump in March, when exporters scrambled to get their shipments out before the 145% U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods took effect.

Imports slowed a slide that began at the start of 2025, falling 0.2%, from a 4.3% year-on-year drop in March and below the 5.9% drop expected by analysts.

The new trade data comes with China and the United States locked in a heated trade war, which saw both sides ratchet up tariffs on each other's goods to over 100% in early April.

The Trump administration has since exempted items including smartphones and computers, imported largely from China, from the 145% tariffs. Beijing has also created a list of U.S.-made products that would be exempted from its 125% tariffs and is quietly notifying companies about the policy, Reuters previously reported.

Chinese and U.S. officials will meet this weekend in Switzerland to start trade negotiations.

But an immediate lowering of trade barriers seems a long shot, with Trump saying on Wednesday he was not willing to cut U.S. tariffs to get Beijing to negotiate, and China's foreign ministry insisting that Washington should "stop threatening and pressuring" it.

The U.S. tariffs could deal a heavy blow to China's economy, which has relied on exports to drive growth as it struggles to recover from the pandemic shocks and a protracted property market slump. Domestic demand remains weak and investor confidence fragile.

Beijing has in the past few months reiterated its confidence that China could achieve the "around 5%" growth target for the year, and rolled out measures to bolster consumption and support the country's exporters.

A slew of monetary stimulus measures, including liquidity injections and cuts to policy rates, were announced on Wednesday in a bid to ease tariff hits on the economy.

China's April surplus came in at $96.18 billion, down from the $102.64 billion the previous month.