China's current account surplus fell 8 percent year on year to 124.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first half, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Thursday.

The current account surplus accounted for 4.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half, down 1.3 percentage points from a year ago, SAFE said.

The decline in the current account in China's first half was mainly due to a weak first quarter, while the country's current account surplus rose 30 percent from a year earlier to 70.5 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter, according to SAFE.

China's first quarter current account surplus fell 32 percent from the same period last year to 53.6 billion U.S. dollars, according to the foreign exchange regulator's revised data in July.

With a financial and capital account surplus of 11.5 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter, China's financial and capital account surplus reached 53.9 billion U.S. dollars for the first half of 2010, SAFE said.

International reserve assets increased 8 percent from a year ago to 178 billion U.S. dollars in the first half, it said.