BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters) - China's exports grew 4.9 percent in November compared with a year ago when calculated in yuan, Chinese state television CCTV said on Monday.

November imports were down 6.5 percent from a year earlier when calculated in yuan, CCTV said.

The CCTV report preceded official data that showed China's November trade performance was much weaker than expected, which is likely to fuel concerns about how quickly the world's second-largest economy is cooling.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao, Judy Hua and Koh Gui Qing; Editing by Kim Coghill)