China's exports grew for the third straight month in February, up 45.7 percent year on year to 94.52 billion U.S. dollars, which indicated a rebound in global demand, the General Administration of Customs announced Wednesday.

Imports in the same month rose 44.7 percent to 86.91 billion U.S.dollars.

"February's growth surge also resulted from a lower comparison base last year," said Wang Tao, economist with the UBS Securities, as China's exports in February last year marked the sharpest decline in more than a decade because of the financial crisis.

Foreign trade in February stood at 181.43 billion U.S. dollars, up 45.2 percent year on year. The figure was down 11.5 percent compared with January, which Qiao Hong, an economist with the Goldman Sachs (China) said was partly due to fewer workings days in February because of the weeklong Lunar New Year Holiday.

Out of the same concern, the administration compared February's exports figures with those in the same period of 2008 before the global downturn, as the Lunar New Year fell in February in both 2008 and 2010. The comparison showed that exports grew 8.2 percent while imports were up 9.8 percent.

It also combined data from January and February which could show a more accurate picture of trade conditions as last year's Lunar New Year fell in January.

Exports surged 31.4 percent to 204.08 billion U.S. dollars in the first two months over the same period last year. Imports stood at 182.32 billion dollars, up 63.6 percent.

The trade surplus contracted 50.4 percent in the first two months to 21.76 billion U.S. dollars.

The European Union and United States remained China's two largest trade partners. Trade with the the EU grew 34.5 percent to 65.53 billion U.S. dollars, and with the U.S., it rose 25.1 percent to 49.32 billion U.S. dollars.

Trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) surged 66 percent to 39.12 U.S. dollars in the first two months.

ASEAN overtook Japan as China's third largest trade partner in January after the China-ASEAN free trade area was launched on Jan. 1.

Exports of machinery grew 29.4 percent to 40.73 billion U.S. dollars and exports of appliances and electrical products added 32.4 percent to 46.05 billion U.S. dollars. The two sectors accounted for 58.3 percent of total export value in the first two months.

China ended 15 months of declining exports in December last year on the back of government policy incentives such as tax rebates.

The country overtook Germany as the world's largest exporter despite an annual drop of 16 percent in exports in 2009, as the latter saw exports decrease by nearly a fifth, the biggest decline for Germany in six decades.

Despite strong gains in the past three months, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said Saturday China's exports may need two or three years to return to the pre-crisis level in 2008, as "global recovery is still haunted by uncertainties."

"Now it is still too early to say exports will see full-year growth this year," he said on the sidelines of the annual legislative session.

Strong exports also intensified international pressure on China to strengthen the yuan, or renminbi, as major trade partners stepped up criticism of China's controls on its currency to gain artificial price advantages.

Last Friday, Premier Wen Jiabao said China would keep the yuan exchange rate "basically stable" at an "appropriate and balanced level" this year.

Chen said exchange rate was part of a nation's domestic macro-policy, and the issue should not be politicized.

U.S. President Barack Obama vowed in early February to "get much tougher" with China in trade disputes and on the exchange rates, which he believed had put U.S. companies at a disadvantage.

Last Saturday, Su Ning, deputy governor of China's central bank, said stronger yuan could not address the Sino-U.S. trade imbalance, given the yuan had gained around 21 percent since July 2005, when the government unpegged the yuan from the U.S. dollar.