BEIJING: China’s service trade deficit narrowed in July thanks to a surplus from emerging industries, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday. In July, exports of services dropped 2 percent year on year to 113.3 billion yuan (17.36 billion U.S. dollars) while imports slipped 1.9 percent to 254.8 billion yuan, resulting in a 141.5 billion yuan deficit, a drop of 30 percent compared with the previous month, according to MOC spokesperson Gao Feng. In the first seven months, service trade volume increased 10.6 percent year on year to 2.65 trillion yuan, with exports up 4.4 percent and imports up 13.5 percent. The service trade deficit in the period reached 1.04 trillion yuan. “Information services as well as management and consulting services were among the main sectors within the emerging industries that contributed the most surplus,” Gao said.
In the first seven months, the surplus contributed by the two sectors reached 39 billion yuan and 57.6 billion yuan respectively. During the same period, exports of services in emerging industries climbed 8.3 percent to 405.7 billion yuan, accounting for more than half of the total. Exports of intellectual property royalties surged 489.4 percent while imports went up 25.8 percent. China has been improving its service sector, rolling out measures to make it more competitive, including gradually opening up the finance, education, culture and medical sectors.
