China's 2013 exports rise 7.9 pct, imports up 7.3 pct

China's exports rose 7.9 percent year on year to 2.21 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013, while imports increased 7.3 percent to 1.95 trillion U.S. dollars, customs data revealed on Friday.

The foreign trade surplus widened to 259.75 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, an increase of 12.8 percent from a year earlier, said Zheng Yuesheng, spokesman for the General Administration of Customs.

Last year, the country's total exports and imports value surpassed 4trillion U.S. dollars for the first time to reach 4.16 trillion U.S. dollars, an increase of 7.6 percent year on year.

In December of 2013, China's foreign trade value hit a new high of 389.8 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 6.2 percent from a year earlier.

Trade with the European Union (EU), China's biggest trade partner, edged up 2.1 percent year on year to 559.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2013. China exported 339 billion U.S. dollars' worth of goods to the EU, while importing 220.1 billion U.S. dollars' worth of goods from the EU.

Trade with the United States, China's second-biggest trade partner, rose 7.5 percent year on year to 521 billion U.S. dollars. China's exports to the United States amounted to 368.4 billion U.S. dollars, while imports from the country stood at 152.6 billion U.S. dollars.

China's trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its third-largest trading partner, rose 10.9 percent year on year to 443.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Its trade with Japan meanwhile contracted 5.1 percent year on year, to 312.55 billion U.S. dollars.