China’s total imports and exports expanded to 28.5 percent year-on-year to 11.62 trillion yuan (about 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first four months of 2021.

An official data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Friday showed an increase of 21.8 percent from the pre-epidemic level in 2019.

According to the data, exports jumped from 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.

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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.

The GAC data showed in the first four months that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations remained China’s largest trading partner, followed by the European Union and the U.S.

For the period, the growth rates of China’s trade value with the three trading partners are 27.6 percent, 32.1 percent, and 50.3 percent, respectively.

China’s trade with countries along the Belt and Road rose to 24.8 percent year-on-year to reach 3.43 trillion yuan.

Private enterprises contributed 47.2 percent of China’s total foreign trade in the first four months, up to 4.1 percentage points from a year earlier.

Their imports and exports expanded by 40.8 percent to 5.48 trillion yuan during the period.