China's trade volume hit 682.3 billion US dollars in the first 10 months of this year, up 36.4 percent, while the import growth rate of 40.4 percent exceeded that of exports by 7.6 percentage points, official figures show.

Statistics from Chinese Customs show that both import and export volume surpassed that of 2002, and the trade surplus dropped by 40 percent year-on-year.

China enjoyed a trade surplus of 14.87 billion US dollars during the 10-month period and the figure for last year was 30.4 billion US dollars.

China bought 31 million tons of steel and 141,000 automobiles in the first 10 months, figures show.

Machinery accounted for half of Chinese total exports and imports of primary products or raw material witnessed a strong growth, figures show.

Spurred by the vigorous Chinese economy and huge domestic demand, imports of iron ore, crude oil and refined oil increased by 30 percent to 49 percent.

China-Japan and China-US trade increased to 107.86 billion US dollars and 102.48 billion US dollars respectively in the January-October period, figures show.

China-EU trade increased by 42.3 percent to reach 99.77 billion US dollars in the period, which makes the European Union China's third largest trade partner.

Trade growth with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Republic of Korea both exceeded 40 percent, customs figures indicated.

Local experts said China's booming economy, which will exceed the set annual goal of seven percent growth, generated numerous business opportunities for the neighboring countries and the world at large.