China-Africa trade surged 16.8 percent year-on-year to $38.8 billion in the first quarter of the year, thanks to their deepening cooperation, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.

It was the first quarterly rise since 2015, Sun Jiwen said at a news conference on Thursday, saying the latest favorable results might herald an era of high-level cooperation this year.

China's imports from the continent in the first three months amounted to $18.4 billion, up 46 percent from a year earlier. Among them, agricultural products grew by 18 percent, according to the ministry.