China's exports of goods rose 2.6 percent year on year in August, while imports fell 2.6 percent, customs data showed on Sunday.

Trade surplus stood at 239.6 billion yuan (about 33.79 billion U.S. dollars) last month, expanding 41.8 percent from one year earlier, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

The country's foreign trade climbed 3.6 percent year on year in the first eight months of 2019, with its trade surplus widening 46 percent during the period.

The European Union remained as China's largest trading partner during the period, with bilateral trade volume up 9.7 percent from one year earlier to 3.15 trillion yuan, followed by the ASEAN, up 11.7 percent to 2.74 trillion yuan, and the United States, down nine percent to 2.42 trillion yuan.

China's trade with the Belt and Road countries totaled 5.83 trillion yuan for the January-August period, up 9.9 percent year on year, 6.3 percentage points higher than the overall pace, said the GAC, adding that the amount accounted for 29 percent of China's total trade volume.

Maintaining strong resilience despite external uncertainties

China's foreign trade has maintained strong resilience at a time when looming external uncertainties drag down the global economy and trade growth, with monthly imports and exports exceeding 2.5 trillion yuan for the fifth month in a row, claimed Li Kuiwen, director of the GAC's statistics and analysis department.

Li emphasized China serves as both the world's factory and market. Since the beginning of this year, the second-largest economy has been constantly optimizing its structure of export commodities and taking solid steps to further expand imports, as a result of which daily consumer products have registered a rapid gain.

Exports of mechanical and electrical products, as well as solar cells and tablet computer, have all maintained growth in the period.

Imports of crude oil, coal, natural gas increased in August, but imports of iron ore and soybeans decreased. In the first eight months, China imported 56.32 million tons of soybeans, a decrease of 9.2 percent.

The resilient foreign trade performance demonstrates China's efforts in improving business environment in recent years, including implementing an array of stimulus packages and large-scale tax cuts and fee deductions, markedly boosting business confidence.

(With input from Xinhua)