China's service trade mounted to a new high in the first half (H1) of this year as the government has made more efforts to further bolster¹ and open up the service sector².

 

2018上半年中国服务业产值达到新高，政府为进一步支持和开发服务行业实行投入更多的举措。

 

The Ministry³ of Commerce (MOC) said Tuesday the country's service trade rose 8.5 percent year on year to stand at 2.53 trillion yuan (nearly 370 billion U.S. dollars) in H1.

 

Service exports increased 13.6 percent to 841.57 billion yuan, while imports gained 6.1 percent to 1.69 trillion yuan, which resulted in a deficit⁴ of nearly 848.18 billion yuan, down by 2.66 billion yuan from the same period a year ago.

 

It was the first time in eight years China has seen a decrease in service trade deficit in half-year data.

 

MOC official Li Yuan attributed the shrinking deficit to a rapidly-growing service sector, policy support from the government, and increasing exports of emerging services, such as telecom and insurance.

 

Despite the retreat, Li predicts the deficit will continue to grow in the coming years, as the Chinese continue to have a huge demand for overseas trips and education, and will finally cap in 2025.

 

Trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transportation, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising⁵, computing⁶, and accounting⁷.

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