China's services trade reports rapid growth, travel services boom in Q1

BEIJING - China's services trade sustained sound growth momentum in the first quarter of this year, with travel-related services registering a rapid increase, official data showed on Tuesday.

The country's services trade totaled nearly 1.82 trillion yuan ($256 billion) in the first three months, up 14.7 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports came in at 744.2 billion yuan in the January-March period, rising 9.4 percent from the same period last year, and services imports jumped 18.7 percent year-on-year to over 1.07 trillion yuan, resulting in a deficit of 328.34 billion yuan.

Travel services saw a stellar performance in the first quarter, becoming a key pillar of China's services trade. Imports and exports of travel services totaled 480.08 billion yuan in the first quarter, a significant increase of 42.2 percent year-on-year.

Trade in knowledge-intensive services rose 5.6 percent year-on-year to 733.26 billion yuan, the data revealed.