BEIJING — China's textile and garment exports in the first five months of the year totaled $96.16 billion, down 1.17 percent year-on-year, official data showed.

The decrease narrowed by 8.8 percentage points from the figure in the January-April period, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

From January to May, the country's textile exports climbed 21.3 percent year-on-year to total $57.95 billion, while garment exports dropped 22.8 percent to $38.21 billion.

In May alone, led by the export of face masks, textile exports came in at $20.65 billion, up 77.3 percent from a year ago, MIIT data showed.

China exported more than 70.6 billion masks and 340 million protective suits from March to May, according to a white paper titled "Fighting COVID-19: China in Action."