China's foreign service trade deficit narrows

China continued to see a deficit in foreign service trade in April but it narrowed, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed on Friday.

Income from trade in services stood at 21.9 billion U.S. dollars last month, while expenditure was 42.3 billion U.S. dollars, resulting in a deficit of 20.3 billion U.S. dollars.

The deficit was less than the 21 billion U.S. dollars seen a month earlier.

Distinct from 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's service trade volume grew from 362.4 billion U.S.dollars in 2010 to 713 billion U.S.dollars in 2015, doubling the average international growth speed. The country is aiming to lift its service trade volume to over 1 trillion U.S.dollars by 2020.

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

The 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 44.4 billion U.S. dollars in foreign merchandise trade. Endi