China's foreign trade showed signs of an upturn in July with exports and imports rising over the June figures despite an accelerated year-on-year fall, the General Administration of Customs said Tuesday.

July exports increased 10.4 percent from June to 105.42 billion U.S. dollars. Imports rose 8.7 percent in July from the previous month to 94.79 billion U.S. dollars.

However, compared with July last year, exports were 23 percent down while imports declined 14.9 percent as the global economic downturn sapped demand. In June, exports fell 21.4 percent year on year and imports dropped 13.2 percent.

During the first seven months this year, imports fell 23.6 percent year on year to 519.62 billion U.S. dollars, while exports amounted to 627.1 billion U.S. dollars, down 22 percent from a year earlier.

China's trade surplus stood at 107.49 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months this year, down 12.4 percent compared with the same period last year.