China's foreign service trade deficit narrows

China's foreign service trade deficit narrowed in October while the trade volume dropped, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed Monday.

The deficit stood at 20.9 billion U.S. dollars last month, down from 23.3 billion dollars in September and 25.4 billion dollars in August.

Income from trade in services stood at 22.3 billion U.S. dollars last month, down from 23 billion dollars in September. Meanwhile, expenditures totaled 43.2 billion dollars, less than September's 46.3 billion dollars.

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 in the sector. The country is aiming to increase its service trade volume to over 1 trillion U.S. dollars 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 October, China saw a surplus of 49.9 billion dollars in foreign merchandise trade, up from 44 billion dollars in September, according to SAFE. Endi