(Yicai Global) March 20 -- Seventeen out of China’s 31 provincial-level regions reported increases in trade imports and exports in January and February from the same period last year, and the country’s western and central regions did particular well, despite sluggish overseas demand.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest of China posted the country’s fastest growth in foreign trade in the first two months, expanding 86.4 percent from a year earlier to CNY44.4 billion (USD6.4 billion), according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs.

Southwestern Guizhou province and central Hunan province ranked second and third with growth rates of 62.8 percent and 54.3 percent respectively.

Automobile exports from China’s central and western regions more than doubled from the year before, while exports of smartphones and farm produce jumped over 20 percent, reflecting how these regions are becoming more open to foreign trade, Lv Daliang, director of GAC's department of statistics and analysis, told state broadcaster CCTV in a recent interview.

By contrast, the more economically developed eastern parts of the country saw imports and exports tumble in January and February due to weak foreign demand and last year’s high baseline.

Guangdong, the province with the biggest economy and the largest volume of foreign trade, saw imports and exports plunge 12.4 percent year on year to CNY1.1 trillion (USD159.4 billion). While the provinces with the second and third largest foreign trade volumes, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, reported drops of 9.9 percent and 4.8 percent respectively.

The main difficulty facing foreign trade is fewer orders amid sluggish foreign demand, Zhejiang Daily reported recently, citing Lu Haisheng, researcher at Hangzhou customs’ statistics and analysis division. The high base last year also led to declines in year-on-year data. But Zhejiang province’s exports should start to rebound in March, he added.

The value of China’s imports and exports climbed 1.3 percent in February from a year earlier to USD411.2 billion, ending four straight months of decline, according to customs data released on March 18. Imports advanced 4.2 percent USD197 billion while exports sank 1.3 percent to USD214 billion.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor