China's foreign trade volume in the first month of 2000 chalked up a 50.8 percent rise over that of January last year, to hit 32.1 billion U.S. dollars, with a surplus of 1.5 billion dollars, according to the latest statistics by the General Administration of Customs (GAC). China's export volume in January reached 16.8 billion U.S. dollars, up 47.8 percent over the same period in 1999, the statistics showed.

Of the total exports, general exports jumped 71 percent over the same period last year to 7.1 billion U.S. dollars. Processing exports reported a 33.4 percent growth at 9.25 billion U.S. dollars.

Export value by state-owned enterprises took up half of the total volume, while overseas-invested enterprises claimed 45 percent. And the growth rate of the former was far greater than the latter.

China's export volume has been on an upward track since the third quarter of 1999. The overall recovery of the world market, as well as the increase of export refund rates introduced since late last year have contributed to boosting China's exports, a GAC official said.

Import value reached 15.3 billion U.S. dollars, a 54.4 percent rise over the January last year. General imports kept up the rapid pace of growth with a volume of 6.64 billion U.S. dollars, up 74 percent compared with the corresponding month last year. Processing imports stood at 6.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 38.9 percent. Overseas investors imported 890 million dollars worth of goods as part of their investment, showing an increase of 31.5 percent over the January 1999.