East China's Zhejiang Province remained its first place in foreign trade surplus in the country in the first half of this year, statistics from local customs showed.

The foreign trade surplus of the province reached 20.25 billion US dollars in the first six months, the statistics said.

The province registered a foreign trade volume of 49.47 billion US dollars in the six months, a year-on-year growth of 28.8 percent.

Export in Zhejiang reached 34.86 billion US dollars in the period, up 37.6 percent, while import rose 11.8 percent to 14.16 billion US dollars.

The increase rate of imports in the province, however, dropped 24.8 percentage points over the whole of last year, statistics showed.

The coastal province has been leading the country in foreign trade surplus in the past four years since 2001.

Source: Xinhua