SHANGHAI, Jan. 18 -- China's economic hub Shanghai in December posted the first year-on-year growth in both imports and exports in 14 months, indicating further recovery from the economic downturn, local customs said Sunday.

Last month, Shanghai's foreign trade stood at 30.7 billion U.S. dollars, a growth of 35.3 percent over the same month of 2008. This was the second year-on-year growth of foreign trade in two consecutive months in the city, the sources said.

Exports in particular, which stood at 15.21 billion U.S. dollars, reported the first year-on-year growth of 23.5 percent since November 2008, while imports surged 49.5 percent, up from the 26.7 percent growth rate in the previous month.

Last month saw the city's trade with the European Union, the United States and Japan up 15.4 percent, 36.8 percent and 19.8 percent, respectively.

However, Shanghai's foreign trade in total last year went down 13.8 percent from 2008 to 277.73 billion U.S. dollars due to the economic crisis effect. The total included 141.91 billion dollars in exports, down 16.2 percent, and 135.82 billion dollars in imports, down 11.1 percent.