Africa was the fastest-growing market for Chinese goods last year, with Chinese exports to the continent growing by 14.4 percent, stated the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

“The China-Africa trade reached a record high of US$221.88 billion in 2014, increasing by 5.5 percent year-on-year,” it said in a statement last week.

The growth was driven by a 14.4-percent rise in Chinese exports to Africa, totalling US$106.15 billion in 2014, official data show. “The growth was the fastest among other continents, and significantly higher than the nation’s overall export growth of 6.1 percent,” the customs body said.

Chinese imports from the African continent however dropped by 1.5 percent year-on-year to US$115.74 billion in 2014, narrowing the annual trade deficit by 61 percent to US$9.59 billion.

The sluggish performance on imports was due to falling commodity prices in international markets, the customs explained.