China's imports and exports rose 9.8 percent in November year on year, ending a 12-month decline, to stand at 208.2 billion U.S. dollars, the General Administration of Customs announced Friday.

The trade surplus was 177.96 billion dollars in the January-November period, down 30.6 percent from a year earlier.

Exports stood at 113.65 billion dollars in November, down 1.2 percent from a year earlier, but were up 2.6 percent from October for the fifth consecutive monthly increase.

Imports rose 26.7 percent in November to 94.6 billion dollars.

From January to November, the country's imports and exports totalled 1.96 trillion dollars, down 17.5 percent compared with the corresponding period last year.

Imports for the first 11 months were 893.02 billion dollars, down 15.8 percent year on year; exports dropped 18.8 percent to 1.07 trillion dollars.

The EU remained China's biggest trading partner, though bilateral trade declined 17 percent to 326.27 billion dollars in value in the first 11 months; the United States was second with trade at 266.54 billion dollars, down 13.4 percent; Japan followed with trade down 17.4 percent to 203.33 billion dollars.