Foreign trade in south China'sGuangdong Province, the nation's key production and export base,declined 16.7 percent year-on-year in January, local authoritiesannounced Friday.

Exports totaled 39.05 billion U.S. dollars, down 9.2 percent,while imports contracted by 27.2 percent to 22.76 billion dollars,according to local customs statistics.

Total foreign trade stood at 61.81 billion dollars, with asurplus of 16.29 billion dollars, statistics show.

Guangdong's foreign trade accounted for 22.7 percent of thecountry's total last month.

The decrease was partly blamed on the week-long Chinese LunarNew Year holiday, which ran from Jan. 22-28.

Nevertheless, customs officials believed the decline indicatedthat Guangdong, as a region highly reliant on foreign trade, hadentered a "difficult" period against the backdrop of a complicatedinternational situation of Euro-American economic slowdown andinstabilities in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Guangdong's businesses had seen their operating costsincrease due to rises in costs of raw materials and labor.Enditem