BEIJING - China's top customs authority announced Friday that the country's foreign trade with the other four BRICS nations surged by 45.8 percent to reach $59.9 billion in the first quarter of this year.

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The first-quarter foreign trade growth between China and the other four nations of BRICS (an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), was 16.3 percentage points higher than China's average foreign trade growth during the period, China's General Administration of Customs said in a statement on its website.

During the first three months, China's imports from the other BRICS countries reached $33.05 billion, up 57.2 percent year on year. Exports to those countries hit 26.85 billion yuan, up 33.8 percent.

China's Q1 trade deficit with the other four nations reached $6.2 billion, up more than five times the amount from the same period last year.

In March alone, China's imports from these nations rose 48.8 percent to reach $11.93 billion, while exports grew 48.5 percent to hit $9.93 billion, creating $2 billion in deficit.

During the first quarter, China's bilateral trade with each of the other four nations exceeded $10 billion, with India and Brazil being China's 9th and 10th largest trading partner.

Q1 bilateral trade between China and India rose 25.2 percent to $17.63 billion.

Trade with Brazil surged 58.9 percent to $16.11 billion, while that with Russia rose 33.5 percent to $15.99 billion.

Bilateral trade between China and South Africa increased more than one fold to $10.16 billion.

The statement said China's Beijing Municipality, Guangdong Province, and Jiangsu Province together made up about 40 percent of country's total foreign trade value with other BRICS nations in the first three months.