China trade grows 15.7% in April

New customs data on Wednesday shows China's foreign trade is picking up. Trade volume grew by 15.7 percent year on year in April, faster than the 12.1 percent increase in March.

According to a statement issued by the General Administration of Customs, total exports and imports stood at just over 2.2 trillion yuan, or 356 billion U.S. dollars last month.

INSERT GFX BAR CHART: X-AXIS: EXPORTS, IMPORTS, Y-AXIS: DOLLARS

Exports rose 14.7 percent year-on-year to 190.5 billion dollars... while imports surged 16.8 percent, to 172.6 billion dollars.

Resulting in a trade surplus of 18.7 billion dollars in April, narrowing 1.7 percent from a year earlier...

But recovering from last month's record deficit, as exports picked up steam...Suggesting the global economic recovery is on track.

In the first four months of the year, China's foreign trade expanded 14 percent from a year ago to 1360 billion dollars, while it's trade surplus stood at 62.4 billion dollars.

The GAC started using the yuan, along with the U.S. dollar, to calculate its trade figures since February, to promote the international use of the Chinese currency.