China’s external trade continued to fall in November, but the level of decline was smaller than in the previous month, data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday.

China’s external trade fell 4.5 percent year-on-year in November to 2.16 trillion yuan (US$336 billion), according to official data quoted by Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua.

November was the ninth consecutive month that China recorded a year-on-year decline in external trade. But November’s contraction was an improvement on the 9 percent year-on-year decrease registered in October, Xinhua said.

According to the media outlet, the reason for November’s improvement was a rise in exports of electrical products.

Xinhua said the value of total Chinese exports fell in November by 3.7 percent from the previous year. It was the fifth such consecutive monthly decline.

Imports decreased for the 13th consecutive month: by 5.6 percent from the same period last year, the news agency added.

In the first 11 months of this year, the value of Chinese exports dropped 2.2 percent from the previous year, to 12.71 trillion yuan, while the value of China’s imports in that period was 9.37 trillion yuan, down by 14.4 percent from the prior-year period.

China’s trade surplus in the first 11 months of 2015 increased 63 percent to 3.34 trillion yuan, Xinhua added.