(Yicai Global) Feb. 23 -- China was Germany's second-largest trade partner for the second straight year in 2017 after commerce between the two nations leapt almost 10 percent annually to EUR187 million (USD230 billion).

The Netherlands (EUR177 billion) came in at second and the United States (EUR173 billion) was the Germany's third-largest partner, according to data published online by the German Federal Statistic Office.

China and Germany are two of the world's biggest exporters, with the Asian nation's outbound trade rising almost 11 percent to CNY15.3 trillion (USD2.4 trillion) last year. However, its surplus is narrowing. It dived 14 percent to CNY2.9 trillion last year after imports surged nearly 19 percent, state-owned news agency Xinhua reported on Jan. 12. The surplus fell 9 percent in 2016.

The U.S. remained Germany's largest export market after importing EUR112 billion, compared with China's EUR86 billion, which ranked it in third, behind France.