BEIJING, June 8 (Xinhua) --- China's exports went up seven percent year on year to 195.47 billion U.S. dollars in May, customs data showed on Sunday.

But imports were down 1.6 percent to 159.55 billion U.S. dollars and total foreign trade volume increased by three percent to 355.02 billion U.S. dollars, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said.

Trade balance realized a surplus of 35.92 billion U.S. dollars in May, the GAC said.

The combined foreign trade volume in the first five months saw a year-on-year growth of 0.2 percent to 1.68 trillion U.S. dollars, according to the GAC data.

Exports decreased by 0.4 percent and imports went up 0.8 percent during the period, while the trade surplus stood at 71.3 billion U.S. dollars.

China set a trade growth target of 7.5 percent this year, lower than the 8-percent goal for 2013 and last year's actual expansion of 7.6 percent.