China's trade surplus with the rest of the world reached $22.9 billion in November, pushing up the figure for the first 11 months of this year to $156.5 billion, according to figures released by China Customs on Monday.

Exports for November reached $95.9 billion, a surge of 32.8 percent on the year, while imports stood at $72.9 billion, up 18.3 percent from the same month last year, according to the figures.

The November trade surplus is slightly less than the $23.4 billion figure for the month reported by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency last week. The surplus was also slightly down on October's figure of $23.8 billion, which was the highest monthly total so far this year.

China's growing trade surplus is expected to be a topic of discussion when senior U.S. economic figures arrive in Beijing for the inaugural meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, which starts Thursday.

The dialogue was set up by U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao in September to discuss immediate and longer-term economic issues between the two countries.