GUANGZHOU, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Foreign trade in south China's Guangdong Province, the nation's key production and export base, declined 16.7 percent year-on-year in January, local authorities announced Friday.

Exports totaled 39.05 billion U.S. dollars, down 9.2 percent, while imports contracted by 27.2 percent to 22.76 billion dollars, according to local customs statistics.

Total foreign trade stood at 61.81 billion dollars, with a surplus of 16.29 billion dollars, statistics show.

Guangdong's foreign trade accounted for 22.7 percent of the country's total last month.

The decrease was partly blamed on the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, which ran from Jan. 22-28.

Nevertheless, customs officials believed the decline indicated that Guangdong, as a region highly reliant on foreign trade, had entered a "difficult" period against the backdrop of a complicated international situation of Euro-American economic slowdown and instabilities in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Guangdong's businesses had seen their operating costs increase due to rises in costs of raw materials and labor.