Containers being loaded at the Nansha Port in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - China's exports in August rose 9.4 percent year-on-year to $208 billion, with monthly trade surplus reaching an all-time high of $49.8 billion.

The export growth was significantly lower than the 14.5 percent rise in July, but higher than June's 7.2 percent

In August, China's imports continued to contract and stood at $159 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.4 percent, after dropping 1.6 percent in July, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said in a statement.

Trade surplus in August jumped 77.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high again, after reaching an all-time high of $47.3 billion in July.

Last month, China's total trade volume rose 4 percent year-on-year to $367.1 billion.

For the first eight months, total trade edged up by 2.3 percent to $2.77 trillion, with exports up 3.8 percent to $1.48 trillion and imports up 0.6 percent to $1.28 trillion.

In the Jan-Aug period, China posted a total trade surplus of $200 billion, an increase of 30.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the GAC.

The European Union (EU) continued to be China's biggest trading partner, with two-way trade totaling $404.1 billion in the first eight months, up 11.4 percent from a year earlier.

In the first eight months, China exported $241.9 billion worth of goods to the EU, representing a year-on-year increase of 10.9 percent. While China's imports from the EU rose 12.9 percent year-on-year to $162.1 billion, GAC data showed.

China's trade with the United States, the second largest trade partner, gained 6.1 percent year-on-year to $354 billion in the first eight months.

China's exports to the US were up 7 percent to $249 billion, while imports rose 4 percent to $105 billion.

China's total trade with the ASEAN till the end of August stood at $301 billion, up 6 percent from the same period last year. Trade with Japan edged up 2 percent to $204 billion in the first eight months.

Trade between China's mainland and Hong Kong continued to stay in contraction territory, falling 16.5 percent to $223.5 billion in the first eight months.

In terms of regional performance on foreign trade, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing took the lead.

The southern Chinese province of Guangdong, a traditional export powerhouse, recorded 4.02 trillion yuan ($652.6 billion) in foreign trade in the first eight months, down 11.7 percent (under yuan term) over the same period last year.