Exports by southern China's Guangdong Province, an economic powerhouse and a major export base of the nation, had seen signs of recovery, expecting a year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter, said a local trade official on Tuesday.

Liang Yaowen, head of the provincial bureau of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said that Guangdong's foreign sales would continue to stage a year-on-year decline in the third quarter of this year, as global demand was yet to rally, trade protectionism persisted and pressure remained on export price to go down further.

Guangdong's external trade amounted to 257.87 billion U.S. dollars from January to June, a decline of 20.7 percent from the same period of last year. The total included 153.42 billion dollars in export, down 18.6 percent, and 104.45 billion dollars in import, down 23.7 percent.

But he said the province's foreign trade was recovering quarter on quarter, and predicted that in the fourth quarter, the province was expected to post a year-on-year growth in exports.

In the second quarter, exports grew 16.5 percent on the first quarter and external trade was up 34.4 percent, according to Liang.

Liang said Guangdong's share in the nation's total exports went up 1.1 percentage points to 29.4 percent in the first six months.

He attributed the signs of recovery to government stimulus measures, including higher tax rebates and credit insurance for export.

According to Chen Liancong, general manager of the Guangdong branch of China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, the company provided insurance for local export goods valued at 3.95 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year, up 63.6 percent on the same period of last year.