BEIJING -- China's export growth slowed sharply in July to a six-month low following dwindling demand from Europe and Japan, official data showed Friday.

Exports rose 1 percent year-on-year to $176.9 billion in July, plummeting from the 11.3-percent growth seen in June and well below market expectations, the General Administration of Customs said Friday.

Imports increased 4.7 percent year-on-year to $151.8 billion, compared with a growth of 6.3 percent in June.

The trade surplus narrowed 16.8 percent year-on-year to $25.2 billion in July, taking the combined trade surplus to $94.1 billion for the first seven months of the year.

Foreign trade expanded 2.7 percent year-on-year to $328.7 billion in July, according to the GAC data.

In the January-July period, total foreign trade reached $2.17 trillion, an increase of 7.1 percent year-on-year, lower than the 10-percent growth targeted by the government for the whole of 2012.

Meanwhile, exports rose 7.8 percent year-on-year to $1.13 trillion in the first seven months.

China's trade with the EU, its largest trading partner, dipped 0.9 percent in the January-July period from a year earlier to $315.8 billion, the figures showed.

During the period, trade with Japan also slipped 0.2 percent year-on-year to $190.9 billion.

Meanwhile, trade with the United States, the country's second-biggest trading partner, went up 10.5 percent year-on-year to $271.4 billion in the first seven months, according to the GAC.