China's annual foreign trade posted better-than-anticipated performance and registered 41.76 trillion yuan ($5.82 trillion) in 2023, up 0.2 percent year-on-year, the General Administration of Customs said on Friday.

In a breakdown, exports grew 0.6 percent year-on-year to 23.77 trillion yuan last year, while imports edged down 0.3 percent year-on-year to 17.99 trillion yuan, said Wang Lingjun, vice-minister of the administration, at a news conference.

Foreign trade has shown overall stability and picked up markedly in the fourth quarter. In particular, total imports and exports in December scored 3.81 trillion yuan, reaching a record high on a monthly basis, Wang said.

The country has fostered a diverse range of export drivers, Wang said, citing the annual electro-mechanical product shipments, which increased by 2.9 percent over the previous year to 13.92 trillion yuan and accounted for 58.6 percent of the total exports.

Moreover, exports of the "new three", namely electric vehicles for transport of persons, lithium-ion batteries and solar cells, amounted to 1.06 trillion yuan in 2023, posting a year-on-year increase of 29.9 percent, Wang added.

Trade kept growing with diverse trading partners. Last year, China's trade with economies involved in the Belt and Road Initiative climbed 2.8 percent year-on-year to 19.47 trillion yuan, accounting for 46.6 percent of China's total foreign trade, Wang said.

China's trade with the European Union and the Unites States rebounded in the fourth quarter, and hit 5.51 trillion yuan and 4.67 trillion yuan for the annual value, respectively, which takes up 13.2 percent and 11.2 percent of China's total foreign trade, Wang said.