China's foreign service trade deficit widens

BEIJING - China saw its foreign service trade deficit expand in August, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) data Tuesday.

Income from trade in services stood at $22.8 billion last month, while expenditure was $48.2 billion, resulting in a deficit of 25.4 billion dollars.

The deficit was higher than the July total of $22.5 billion and the $19.4 billion June deficit.

Distinct from merchandise trade, trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transport, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.

China's service trade volume grew from $362.4 billion in 2010 to $713 billion in 2015, doubling the average international growth speed in the sector. The country is aiming to increase its service trade volume to over $1 trillion by 2020.

The State Council has pledged measures to improve the development of services trade, including gradually opening up the finance, education, culture and medical sectors.

SAFE began releasing monthly data on service trade in January 2014, to improve the transparency of balance of payments statistics. Since the beginning of 2015, it has also included monthly data on merchandise trade in its reports.

In August, China saw a surplus of $52.7 billion in foreign merchandise trade, up from $50 billion in July, according to SAFE.