(Yicai Global) Aug. 12 -- China’s express logistics sector widened rapidly amid the Covid-19 pandemic during the first seven months of this year, driven by rural e-commerce.

The volume of parcels climbed nearly 24 percent to 40.8 billion units, exceeding that of the entire year of 2017, according to the latest data from the State Post Bureau. The sector's revenues rose almost 14 percent to CNY454.7 billion (USD65.4 billion).

Nearly half of all the items were sent from rural regions during the seven months, and business in those areas grew much faster than in cities along with improving infrastructure, the bureau added.

Chinese villages have more than 310,000 e-commerce service centers and delivery staff can reach almost half of these smallest administrative units.

China's cross-border express delivery business has also rebounded rapidly after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted international flight routes early this year. Since May, the rates of volume growth have returned to above 30 percent every month.

In the first seven months of this year, the volume of items sent abroad climbed almost 23 percent to 920 million from a year ago.

Editor: Emmi Laine