Trade between Mainland China and Macao increased by 3.7 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2014, faster than the overall growth of China’s external trade, official news agency China News Service reports.

The news agency quoted data from the Chinese General Administration of Customs showing that trade between Mainland China and Macao totalled US$3.36 billion from January to November. During the period, China’s external trade expanded by 3.4 percent from a year earlier to US$3.9 trillion.

“Since Macao returned to China in 1999, the growth of trade between the Mainland and Macao has always been faster than the growth of China’s external trade in general,” the agency reported.

China’s exports to Macao accounted for over 90 percent of the total trade between the two places in the first 11 months of 2014.

China News Service also noted that growth in trade between Mainland China and Macao has picked up in recent years – bilateral trade expanded by 19.4 percent last year compared with an 8-percent growth in 2010.