China's service trade deficit narrows in February

China's foreign service trade deficit narrowed in February and goods trade posted a rare deficit, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Monday.

The service trade deficit stood at 17.6 billion U.S. dollars, down from 20.9 billion U.S. dollars in January, SAFE data showed.

Income from trade in services was 20.4 billion U.S. dollars, while expenditure totaled 38 billion dollars.

Trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transport, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.

China regularly holds a deficit in service trade as its service sector is less competitive than a number of other economies.

In February, China ran a deficit of 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in goods trade, as imports grew faster than exports, compared with a surplus of more than 50 billion U.S. dollars in January. Endi