China's exports continued to expand in October, the growth rate reached 19 months high, and imports also showed stable growth, official data showed on Saturday, as the country's economy continues to recover from the pandemic.

China's October exports and imports increased 11.4 and 4.7 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, reaching $237 billion and $179 billion.

Exports in October continued to expand from an already solid increase of 9.9 percent in September, beating analysts' expectations of 9.3 percent. Imports however slowed down from September's big leap of 13.2 percent, and stabilized to 4.7 percent, still marking the second straight month of growth.

After bottomed in February this year when the pandemic just broke out and China imposed travel restrictions to control the breakout, China's exports quickly rebounded and have maintained resilient since, from the strong demand for medical supplies from the rest of the world.

The surge in exports pushed the trade surplus to $58.44 billion, increased 34.9 percent compared to the same time last year. The surplus stood at $37 billion last month.

"Exports growth quickened further and significantly exceeded expectations, indicating a relatively strong momentum," said Liu Xuezhi, an analyst at Bank of Communications in Shanghai.

China's exports could stay strong in the rest of 2020 as domestic firms resume production faster than global rivals and sell more COVID-19 related goods such as face masks, Liu said.

However, some analysts cautioned that China's robust trade performance could come under pressure in November, as the second wave of coronavirus is sweeping through the rest of the world, and many major economies in Europe went back to lockdown.

In the first 10 months of 2020, China exported more industrial and electrical products and textile products. The exports of clothing, shoes, bags, oil, and steel saw different degrees of reduction.

ASEAN became China's largest trading partner in the first 10 months of 2020, followed by the EU, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea.

China's trade surplus with the U.S. widened to $31.37 billion in October from $30.75 billion last month.

(With inputs from Reuters)