China's July export beats expectations to grow 18 percent year-on-year at $332.96 billion in U.S. dollar terms, data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed on Sunday.

The number was stronger than the 17.9-percent expansion in June and exceeds Reuters estimates of 15 percent growth and Bloomberg's 14.1 percent gain.

July imports logged in at $231.7 billion – a yearly increase of 2.3 percent and higher than the 1 percent growth in June – but missed Reuters expectation of a 3.7-percent expansion. As a result, China's trade surplus widened to $101.26 billion in July.

China's imports and exports to the countries in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) reached 1.17 trillion yuan ($173 billion) in July, fueling China's overall trade growth by 5.6 percentage points in the same month.

In the first seven months of this year, China's trade with its fellow 14 member countries in the RCEP was up 7.5 percent year on year. Meanwhile, trade with countries along the Belt and Road Initiative increased by 19.8 percent year on year.

China's foreign trade volume totaled $3.64 trillion in the first seven months of 2022, up by 10.4 percent from last year's corresponding period.

From January to July, China's trade with its top three trading partners, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the European Union, and the U.S., saw year-on-year increases of 13.2 percent, 8.9 percent, and 11.8 percent, respectively.