LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- China swung to a trade deficit of $880 million in March, the General Administration of Customs reported Wednesday, as imports surged 14.1% from a year earlier. The deficit, which followed February's $15.2 billion surplus, missed a forecast for a surplus of $14.7 billion from a Dow Jones Newswires survey and a $15.2 billion projected surplus tipped by Bloomberg News. The gain in imports, which fell more than 15% in February, far exceeded a 6.1% growth forecast from Dow Jones Newswires and a 5.2% estimate from a Reuters survey. Exports rose 10% from March 2012, less than Dow Jones' expected increase of 12% and well below an almost 22% rise in February. Chinese trade data have drawn recent skepiticism from some analysts, who said ahead of Wednesday's numbers that recent trade numbers appeared to overstate exports, when compared with other data sets. The Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.41% rose briefly immediately after the data but then moved lower to trade with a 0.1% loss. The Australian dollar CUR_AUDUSD -- often sensitive to economic news from Australia's top trading partner -- rose from $1.048 ahead of the data to $1.051.