China’s service trade reaches 4.87 trillion yuan in first 11 months

China’s service trade totaled 4.87 trillion yuan (about 697.25 billion US dollars) in the first 11 months of this year, up 2.1 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

Service exports increased by 8.2% year on year to1.74 trillion yuan (about 249.1 billion US dollars). The service trade deficit decreased by 162.3 billion yuan (about 23.2 billion U.S. dollars), or 10.5% year on year, according to the ministry.

“The quality of service trade has been improving. The import and export of knowledge-intensive services grew by 10.2% to 1.67 trillion yuan (about 239 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 34.2% of the total service trade value, up 2.5% points year on year,” said Xian Guoyi, head of the Department of Service Trade of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Technology trade rose by 13% year on year to reach 59.9 billion US dollars, of which technology exports reached 27.75 billion US dollars and imports 32.15 billion US dollars.

In terms of exhibition services, a total of 5,396 exhibitions were held across the country from January to November this year, with the total exhibition area reaching 128 million square meters, ranking first in the world.