MANILA, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's early recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is "good news" for the Philippines, Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said Tuesday, adding that China's fast recovery is a boon to the Philippines.

"Fortunately, our biggest trading partner is in good shape, and that is China. Our trade with China is around 50 billion U.S. dollars a year (pre-pandemic)," Dominguez told an online forum held by local newspaper Manila Times, noting two-way trade with China was double the value of products traded with the United States and Japan separately.

"So, demand in China is going to pick up, it's going to buy our products, and that is good news for us," Dominguez added.

According to local media, the Philippine Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua also said on Tuesday that "when China recorded positive growth in the second quarter, our exports to China also recovered."

China's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 4.9 percent year on year in the third quarter of 2020, faster than the 3.2-percent growth in the second quarter, data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China showed Monday.

In the first three quarters, China's GDP expanded 0.7 percent year on year.

China remains the Philippines' top export market with almost 27 percent of its total exports shipped to the world's second-largest economy, the Philippines' Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in July.

The DTI said China is also the top import supplier accounting for 23 percent of the Philippines' total imports, as well as the Philippines' top trading partner.