China's foreign trade continued to fall in September, but the rate of decline slowed sharply, the General Administration of Customs said Wednesday.

The total value of imports and exports for September was 218.94 billion U.S. dollars, down 10.1 percent from the same month last year, but up 14.2 percent from August.

Imports stood at 103.01 billion U.S. dollars, down by 3.5 percent from September last year and up 17 percent from August.

Exports in September dropped 15.2 percent from the same month last year to 115.93 billion U.S. dollars, but their value rose 11.8 percent from August.

For the first three quarters, China's foreign trade was down by 20.9 percent from the same period last year to 1.56 trillion U.S. dollars.

Exports dropped by 21.3 percent from the same period last year to 846.65 billion U.S. dollars. Imports were 711.17 billion U.S. dollars, representing a decrease of 20.4 percent from the same period last year.

The total trade surplus was 135.48 billion U.S. dollars from January to September, a decrease of 26 percent from the same period last year.