CHONGQING, Oct. 22 -- The foreign trade volume of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality rose by 12.3 percent during the first three quarters of 2019, with ASEAN becoming its largest trading partner.

Customs figure showed the total foreign trade volume of Chongqing increased to 413.8 billion yuan (58.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months of the year, up 12.3 percent year on year.

Its exports grew by 12.1 percent to 263.7 billion yuan, while its imports gained 12.6 percent to 150 billion yuan from January to September.

The city's foreign trade with ASEAN state members grew 46.1 percent year on year to 78.8 billion yuan during the period, accounting for 19 percent of the total trade volume of Chongqing.

Chongqing Customs noted a robust trade growth of 34.1 percent to 115.7 billion yuan with countries along the Belt and Road during the nine months.

The rapid development of China (Chongqing)-Europe freight train services and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore, contributed to the growth, according to the customs.