Maintaining a basically stable exchange rate of the Renminbi, China's currency yuan, would help the world economy go out of the global financial crisis and back on the track of growth, Minister of Commerce Chen Deming said Tuesday.

China would adjust the RMB exchange rate in a gradual and controllable manner and based on the market supply and demand, Chen said at a press conference.

Although there were some improvements in China's foreign trade this year, it would take a long time for the country's foreign trade to return to its 2008 level, he said.

Chen expected it would take one or two years or even longer for the country's foreign trade to be back to the 2008 level.

China's foreign trade in 2009 dropped 13.9 percent from a year earlier and its trade surplus last year slid 34.2 percent year on year to 196.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to figures released by the General Administration of Customs. In 2008, China's foreign trade increased 17.8 percent year on year.