China's service trade up 8.7% in first 10 months

BEIJING - China's service trade value grew 8.7 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of this year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed Friday.

The service trade value exceeded 5.34 trillion yuan ($751.65 billion) during the January-October period.

Of the total, service imports increased by 23.5 percent year-on-year to more than 3.16 trillion yuan, compared to a year ago the service exports fell 7.4 percent year-on-year to 2.18 trillion yuan.

China's trade of knowledge-intensive services maintained steady growth in the period, rising 8.9 percent year-on-year to about 2.23 trillion yuan.

Also during the January-October period, services related to the travel sector registered a notable recovery. Total trade value in this sector surged 71.7 percent from a year earlier to over 1.18 trillion yuan.

Exports and imports of travel services expanded by 53.8 percent and 73.2 percent year-on-year, respectively, according to the data.