China’s service trade continued to experience rapid growth in the first five months of 2024. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the total value of service imports and exports reached 3.02 trillion yuan ($415.6 billion), representing a year-on-year increase of 16 percent.
Standout performance in travel services
Xinhua News Agency reported that exports amounted to approximately 1.22 trillion yuan, up 11 percent, while imports stood at 1.8 trillion yuan, with a robust growth of 19.6 percent. This resulted in a service trade deficit of around 580 billion yuan.
The travel services sector was a standout performer, with imports and exports totaling 819.72 billion yuan, a 48.4 percent increase, making it the largest sector in service trade.
Read more: China’s foreign direct investment plunges 28 percent to $57.94 billion in 5-month period
Expansion of knowledge-intensive services
The knowledge-intensive service trade also continued to expand, with a total of 1.19 trillion yuan in imports and exports, a 6 percent increase. Exports of knowledge-intensive services reached 675.31 billion yuan, growing by 2.8 percent, with particularly strong growth in the areas of intellectual property rights fees and personal cultural and entertainment services, which increased by 17.8 percent and 15.5 percent, respectively.
Moreover, imports of knowledge-intensive services were 514.58 billion yuan, growing by 10.4 percent, with personal cultural and entertainment services and other business services seeing the fastest growth, at 49.4 percent and 17.2 percent, respectively.
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