South China's Guangdong province, an economic powerhouse, reported a total foreign trade volume of 33.85 billion U.S. dollars in January, up 32.5 percent over the same period last year.

According to the provincial customs, exports reached 18.92 billion U.S. dollars, up 36.8 percent, while imports hit 14.93 billion U.S. dollars, up 27.4 percent. The trade surplus stood at 3.99 billion U.S. dollars in the first month of 2006.

General trade took up 27.7 percent of the total volume, reaching 5.25 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 45.7 percent. Processing trade amounted to 21.88 billion U.S. dollars, representing 64.6 percent of the total.

Hong Kong, the United States, the European Union, Japan, and the ASEAN countries are the biggest five trading partners in the province.

In January, Guangdong exported 400 million U.S. dollars to African countries, recording an increase of 91.9 percent, the highest export growth rate of all trading partners.

Editor: Yan