China's foreign trade tumbles 10.8 pct in Jan

China's foreign trade tumbled 10.8 percent to 2.09 trillion yuan (341.16 billion US dollars) year on year in January, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Sunday.

Exports dropped 3.2 percent to 1.23 trillion yuan and imports slumped 19.7 percent to 860 billion yuan, making the trade surplus expand 87.5 percent to 366.9 billion yuan, according to the GAC data.

"Spring Festival impacts foreign trade data at the beginning of every year," the GAC said in a press release.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, has approved the GAC to release its trade data in yuan-denominated version since this year.

Before 2014, the GAC mainly used the US dollar in its trade data releases. It started to use both the dollar and yuan to denominate all trade figures in 2014 in an effort to promote the expansion in use of yuan.