NANJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Foreign trade volume of east China's Jiangsu province decreased 12.8 percent year-on-year to 38.06 billion U.S. dollars in January -- the first month of negative trade growth since 2009.

The province's foreign trade volume ranked second place nationwide, following that of Guangdong, according to a Sunday statement by the Jiangsu provincial department of commerce.

The province saw its volume of imports drop 24 percent year-on-year to 14.56 billion U.S. dollars in January.

While its export volume dropped 3.9 percent year-on-year to 23.5 billion U.S. dollars, with volumes of IT products, photovoltaic products and ships decreasing most.

It is the first month of negative foreign trade growth for the province since November 2009, the statement said.