The Chinese mainland's trade with Taiwan and Hong Kong showed signs of recovery despite year-on-year slumps in 2009, latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

The mainland's trade with Taiwan in 2009 slid 17.8 percent over the previous year to 106.23 billion U.S. dollars, but monthly volumes showed a steady increase in the year.

The December volume, for example, increased 10.9 percent over November and more than doubled the figure at the beginning of 2009.

Trade between the mainland and Hong Kong showed a similar trend with improvements in a generally lower volume than 2008.

Total trade between the two sides in the 12 months of 2009 registered 174.95 billion U.S. dollars, a 14.1 percent drop from 2008.

However, trade in December topped 20.8 billion U.S. dollars, gaining 18.9 percent over November and more than doubling the numbers of January and February.