China's foreign trade surged 22.5 percent in 2011 from a year earlier to hit an all-time high of 3.64 trillion U.S. dollars, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Tuesday.

The country's annual trade surplus narrowed 14.5 percent year-on-year to 155.14 billion U.S. dollars in 2011, the administration said.

The figure has fallen from 295.47 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, 196.07 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, and 183.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2010.

Exports rose 20.3 percent year-on-year to reach 1.9 trillion U.S. dollars last year, compared with an increase of 31.3 percent in 2010, while imports grew 24.9 percent to 1.74 trillion U.S. dollars, much lower than 2010's growth of 38.7 percent, the GAC said.

In December, growth of both exports and imports decelerated compared with the previous month. Exports rose 13.4 percent year-on-year, lower than November's 13.8-percent rise. Imports increased 11.8 percent year-on-year, sharply down from November's increase of 22.1 percent.

Trade surplus rose to 16.52 billion U.S. dollars in December from 14.53 billion U.S. dollars in November.

China, already the world's second-largest importer, is expected to take over as the world's top importer in another two or three years and contribute to global economic recovery, said Zhou Shijian, a senior research fellow from the Center for US-China Relations, Tsinghua University.

Zhou further noted that China should consider measures to spur exports instead of "stabilizing exports," as the government has stated. He projected growth in exports, once a major engine driving China's fast economic expansion, to continue decelerating and register in the single digits this year.

Weakening demand for exports because of the Eurozone debt morass and a sluggish U.S. economy have weighed on the Chinese economy, as its GDP growth slowed to 9.1 percent in the third quarter of 2011 from 9.5 percent in the second quarter and 9.7 percent in the first quarter.

The country is scheduled to release its GDP data for the fourth quarter as well as all of 2011 on Jan. 17, which is widely expected to confirm a slowdown trend in the world's second-largest economy.

Financial markets gained after the trade data was released Tuesday, with hopes of a relaxation in the monetary policy to shore up growth. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.69 percent, and most stocks on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses rose.

China said it will maintain the prudent monetary policy and proactive fiscal policy in 2012, but emphasized that the government will fine tune policies in light of emerging conditions.

The country's central bank last month cut the amount of money banks must hold in reserve for the first time in three years to ease a liquidity strain as inflation softened.

The GAC data showed China's trade with emerging economies greatly outpaced last year's average growth, with its trade with Brazil, Russia and South Africa rising by 34.5 percent, 42.7 percent and 76.7 percent, respectively.

The European Union (EU) remained China's top trading partner, with bilateral trade amounting to 567.21 billion U.S. dollars, up 18.3 percent year-on-year.

China's trade with the United States, the country's No. 2 trading partner, rose 15.9 percent from a year ago to 446.65 billion U.S. dollars.

A free trade area arrangement between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continued to boost China-ASEAN trade, which rose by 23.9 percent year-on-year to 362.85 billion U.S. dollars in 2011.