Aerial photo taken on April 11, 2019 shows a container wharf at Qinzhou port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)

BEIJING, July 12 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign trade maintained stable growth in the first half of this year, expanding 3.9 percent year on year, the General Administration of Customs (GAC) said Friday.

Total foreign trade volume reached 14.67 trillion yuan (2.14 trillion U.S. dollars) in H1. Exports expanded 6.1 percent while imports rose 1.4 percent.

China saw its trade surplus widen by 41.6 percent year-on-year to 1.23 trillion yuan during the same period.

The country's trade mix continued to improve in H1 with the general trade growing both in volume and proportion. General trade grew 5.5 percent year-on-year and accounted for 59.9 percent of the total trade, 0.9 percentage points higher than H1 2018.

Private firms gained ground in sustaining China's trade growth, which made 6.12 trillion yuan of trade in H1, up 11 percent year on year.

Trade in the country's central and western regions outpaced the total trade, GAC data showed. Twelve western provincial regions saw their trade grow 14 percent during the Jan.-June period.

China' foreign trade in H1 made steady progress and achieved quality development, said GAC spokesperson Li Kuiwen.

Despite challenges from the complex global environment, China's foreign trade is still dominated by enduring improvement, with trade structure continually optimizing and the driving forces shifting faster, Li added.