German clothing imports from China increased by more than 50 percent in the first half of this year, the German Federal Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

The office, headquartered in the southwestern city of Wiesbaden, said that the imports from China were valued at 1.7 billion euros (2.04 billion US dollars), a rise of 51.7 percent from one year earlier.

The office reported that a total of over 7.5 billion euros (9 billion dollars) clothing was imported in the same period. Compared with the same period a year earlier, such imports were down 4.6 percent.

In 2002, the share of clothing imports from China was 13.8 percent, while in the first six months of this year it was 22.5 percent.

Turkey ranks the second after China in supplying clothing to Germany.

Source: Xinhua