China's exports increased 34.4 percent in August from a year earlier to 139.3 billion U.S. dollars, but the pace of growth slowed from July's 38.1-percent surge, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Friday.

The country's imports rose 35.2 percent year on year to reach 119.27 billion U.S. dollars last month, with the growth rate up 12.5 percentage points from that in July.

China's foreign trade in the first eight months totaled 1.88 trillion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 40 percent, the GAC said in a statement on its website.

Trade surplus for the first eight months of the year totaled 103.9 billion U.S. dollars, down 14.6 percent from the same period last year, it said.

Trade with the European Union, China's largest trade partner, jumped 36.2 percent year on year to 305.81 billion U.S. dollars in the January-August period, the GAC said.

Trade with the United States climbed 32 percent to 242.61 billion U.S. dollars during the period while that with Japan rose 34.8 percent to hit 186.89 billion U.S. dollars.

During the first eight months, China's iron ore imports inched up 0.1 percent year on year to 410 million tonnes while the average import price surged 55.1 percent to 118.6 U.S. dollars per tonne.