China's services trade sustains growth in Q1, travel services surge

BEIJING - China's services trade sustained a sound growth momentum in the first quarter, with travel services seeing visible recovery, official data showed Tuesday.

The country's services trade totaled 1.58 trillion yuan ($228.14 billion) in the first three months, up 8.7 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

Services imports stood at over 903.5 billion yuan, rising 21.6 percent from a year ago, while exports shrank 4.7 percent year-on-year to 680.51 billion yuan in the reporting period, resulting in a deficit of 222.99 billion yuan.

Travel services reported a notable recovery in Q1, as trade in the sector surged 56.6 percent from a year earlier to about 337.63 billion yuan.

Trade in knowledge-intensive services raked in nearly 694.7 billion yuan in Q1, up 12.8 percent year-on-year, the data showed.

Knowledge-intensive services exports gained 18.7 percent to 415.57 billion yuan, driven by the rapid growth of insurance services, according to the ministry.