BEIJING, April 26 -- China's postal sector registered a robust expansion in both business revenue and parcel volume in the first quarter, laying a solid foundation for the industry's whole-year growth, the State Post Bureau said on Wednesday.

From January to March, the sector raked in 356.21 billion yuan (about 51.45 billion U.S. dollars), up 9 percent year on year, while its business volume rose 8.5 percent to reach 34.17 billion parcels, Zeng Junshan, a spokesperson for the bureau, told a press conference.

As a major player in the postal sector, courier companies handled 26.89 billion parcels in the first three months, surging 11 percent from a year earlier. The combined business revenue of the companies amounted to 258.96 billion yuan during the period, a yearly increase of 8.2 percent.

In March alone, the business volume of courier companies exceeded 10 billion, and the growth rate returned to over 20 percent, said Zeng.

The good growth momentum in the postal sector reflects rising consumer confidence and strong economic recovery, he said.