The import and export value of East China’s Anhui province totaled 499.41 billion yuan ($77.61 billion) in the first three quarters this year, hitting a year-on-year record high, local authorities said at a recent press conference.

The province’s foreign trade growth was 3.2 percentage points higher the national average from January to September, with the increase in imports 2.8 percentage points higher than the national level and the export increase 3.4 percentage points higher, according to the provincial government.

The imports and exports rose 39.2 percent, 27.2 percent and 15.3 percent year-on-year in the first, second and third quarter, respectively.

In September alone, Anhui’s foreign trade value reached 59.78 billion yuan, up 20 percent from the same period a year ago. Exports increased 25 percent to 36.19 billion yuan, while imports edged up 13 percent to 23.59 billion yuan.

The province ranked 13th in the country in terms of foreign trade value in the Jan-Sept period. It made up 4.9 percent of the total in the Yangtze River Delta region, compared to 4.6 percent in the same period last year. Meanwhile, the province saw the highest growth in imports and exports in the region.

Data showed the United States, the European Union and the ASEAN were the province’s three major trading partners between January and September, with their imports and exports increasing 14 percent, 27.6 percent and 23.8 percent to 65.88 billion yuan, 63.80 billion yuan and 55.19 billion yuan, respectively.

Meanwhile, the province’s trade with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) reached 127.91 billion yuan, up 34.6 percent.

The Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zone’s imports and exports reached 112.04 billion yuan during the first nine months of the year.