Trade between China and Africa saw steady growth and hit an historic high in 2011 despite the turbulence in some Northern African countries, according to the annual yellow book on African development released in Beijing on July 4.

Two way trade volume reached $166.3 billion in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 31 percent, and 8.4 percent higher than China's foreign trade's overall growth rate. China's exports to Africa hit $73.1 billion, increasing 22 percent, while imports from Africa stood at $93.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 39 percent, according to the Annual Report on the Development of Africa, jointly released by the Social Sciences Academic Press, the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the External Relations Bureau of the Ministry of Culture.

Although some countries in Northern Africa faced turmoil last year, the impact of those events on the trade between China and the continent was limited, the report said. There was only a sharp trade decline between China and Libya in 2011, a 58 percent year-on-year decrease. But there was fast growth with other five North African countries: Sudan, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia.

China's top-five trade partners in Africa are South Africa, Angola, Sudan, Nigeria and Egypt, the report said.