BEIJING, Sept. 8 -- China's exports in August rose 9.4 percent year-on-year to 208.5 billion U.S. dollars, with monthly trade surplus reaching an all-time high of 49.8 billion U.S. dollars, customs data showed on Monday.

China's imports continued to contract last month, with a year-on-year decrease of 2.4 percent, to 158.6 billion U.S. dollars, the General Administration of Customs said in a statement.

Trade surplus in August jumped 77.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high again, after reaching an all-time high of 47.3 billion U.S. dollars in July, the data showed.

Last month, China's total trade volume rose 4 percent year-on-year to 367.1 billion U.S. dollars.

In the first eight months, total trade edged up by 2.3 percent to 2.77 trillion U.S. dollars, with exports up 3.8 percent to 1.48 trillion U.S. dollars and imports up 0.6 percent to 1.28 trillion U.S. dollars.