China's service trade deficit expands in August

Chinese tourists in front of Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in central St. Petersburg, Russia. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - China continued to see a deficit in foreign service trade in August with the volume enlarged, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed Wednesday.

The deficit stood at $29 billion in August, up from $25.3 billion in July, the SAFE said.

Income from trade in services stood at $18.4 billion last month, while expenditures were $47.4 billion.

In contrast to merchandise trade, trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transportation, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.

China has taken steps to improve the development of trade in services, including gradually opening up the finance, education, culture and medical treatment sectors.

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

Last month, China saw a surplus of $34 billion in foreign merchandise trade, the SAFE said.