GUANGZHOU - Foreign trade volume in South China's Guangdong province increased by 11.4 percent year on year in the first two months of 2016, local authorities said Tuesday.

Trade volume hit 878 billion yuan ($127 billion) in January and February, with exports up 7.5 percent to 544.4 billion yuan and imports up 18.5 percent to about 333.5 billion yuan, according to figures released by Guangdong sub-administration of China Customs.

General trade rose 12.9 percent to 400.4 billion yuan during the reporting period, while processing trade was up 3.4 percent to 311 billion yuan. Cross-border e-commerce hit 3.04 billion yuan in the two months for year-on-year growth of 22.5 percent.

ASEAN, the United States, the European Union, the Republic of Korea, Japan and China's Taiwan region?were Guangdong's major trade partners, seeing growth of 19.2 percent, 7 percent, 9.1 percent, 20.8 percent, 13.8 percent and 14.7 percent respectively.

Trade with countries along the Belt and Road route grew 19.1 percent to nearly 200 billion yuan, while trade with the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa rose 48.2 percent, 27.2 percent, 41.6 percent and 6.3 percent respectively during the period.

Analysts attribute the growth to rising global demand and higher commodities prices.