East China's Jiangsu Province, one of the nation's economic engines on the coast, registered 60.6 billion U.S. dollars in foreign trade in the first quarter of this year, up 24.2 percent.

Local customs sources said the growth rate was 1.6 percentage points lower than the national average.

The total external trade volume included 33.23 billion U.S.dollars in export and 27.38 billion U.S. dollars in import, up 30.8 percent and 17 percent respectively. The trade surplus stood at 5.85 billion U.S. dollars.

The export growth was 4.2 percentage points higher than the national average, whereas the import growth was 7.8 percentage points lower, the sources said.

Foreign-funded enterprises made up 49.87 billion U.S. dollars, 82.3 percent of the province's total foreign trade.

Jiangsu's leading trade partners include the European Union, the United States, Japan, Taiwan Province and the Republic of Korea.

Source: Xinhua