RTTNews reports that data from the General Administration of Customs showed that China's exports continued to log robust growth in December driven by higher global demand for pandemic-induced goods.

Exports grew 18.1 percent on a yearly basis in December, faster than the expected growth of 15.0 percent. Nonetheless, the rate of increase slowed from 21.1 percent posted in November.

Driven by domestic demand, imports growth advanced to 6.5 percent from 4.5 percent a month ago. This was also faster than the economists' forecast of +5.0 percent.

As a result, the trade surplus increased to $78.17 billion from $75.4 billion in the previous month. Economists had forecast the surplus to fall to $72.4 billion.

In the whole year of 2020, the trade surplus surged to $535 billion, the highest since 2015. Despite trade disputes, China's surplus with the US rose to $316.9 billion.