China's service trade reached a new high in the first half year amid complicated situations at home and abroad.
The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said Tuesday the country's service trade rose 8.5 percent year on year to stand at 2.53 trillion yuan (369 billion US dollars in today’s exchange rate) in the first half year.
Specifically, service exports amounted to 842 billion yuan, up 13.6 percent year on year, and service imports reached 1.69 trillion yuan, up 6.1 percent, resulting in a deficit of 848 billion yuan.
The MOFCOM said the growth rates hit new highs this year and maintained a stable growth. China's service trade accounted for 15.2 percent of the total foreign trade in the first six months, up 0.1 percentage point year on year. The growth rate of service trade is 0.6 percentage point, which is higher than the growth rate of the import and export of goods.
China’s service deficit narrowed slightly in the first half year. The service export maintained robustness with a growth rate of 7.5 percentage points.?
The trade structure is further optimized as well. Total import and export of emerging services reached 846 billion yuan, up 19 percent, 10.5 percentage points higher than the total growth rate. Export of emerging services achieved 440 billion yuan, up 23.6 percent, accounting for 52.3 percent of the total trade service export.
