Maputo — Trade between Mozambique and China rose to 1.224 billion US dollars in the first eleven months of 2012, representing a growth of 42 per cent, according to figures released by the Chinese Customs Bureau.

According to the news agency Macauhub, Mozambique’s imports from China stood at 859 million dollars, while its exports to the Asian country stood at 365 million dollars.

The growth in trade between the two nations has increased at a quicker rate than with other Lusophone countries. Trade between Portuguese speaking countries and China grew to 117.7 billion dollars - an increase of 9.7 per cent.

Most of this trade, totalling 78.1 billion dollars, was with Brazil.

Angola was China’s second largest trading partner in the Lusophone world, with trade totalling 34.57 billion dollars (an increase of 37.73 per cent).

Because of high demand for Angola’s oil, most of this trade (30.87 million dollars) was exports from the African nation.

China’s third largest Lusophone trading partner was Portugal, with 3.67 billion dollars, an increase of 1.75 per cent over the previous year.