China's foreign trade up 28.5% in first 4 months

China's total imports and exports expanded 28.5 percent year on year to 11.62 trillion yuan (US$1.8 trillion) in the first four months of 2021, official data showed on Friday.

This marks an increase of 21.8 percent from the pre-epidemic level in 2019, the General Administration of Customs said.

Exports jumped 33.8 percent from a year earlier while imports climbed 22.7 percent in yuan terms.

The trade surplus increased 149.7 percent to reach 1.02 trillion yuan in the January-April period.

The country's imports and exports totaled 3.15 trillion yuan in April alone. This marks a year-on-year increase of 26.6 percent and month-on-month growth of 4.2 percent.

In April, the trade surplus narrowed 12.4 percent from a year earlier to 276.5 billion yuan.