China's annual overseas service trade is estimated to to hit US$300 billion this year, up 20 percent from last year, a senior Chinese trade official said Tuesday.

China's foreign service trade had risen rapidly since the beginning of the year, and the momentum was likely to continue, Wang Huiying, of the Service and Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), told Xinhua on the sidelines of a press conference.

China had the world's fifth biggest overseas service trade last year, with total volume reaching US$286.8 billion, Wang said.

Overseas service trade increased 31.7 percent year on year in the first half to US$165.63 billion, said Wang, but she did not give the figure for the first three quarters.

The deficit in China's foreign service trade in the January-June period fell by US$5.05 billion year on year to US$11.69 billion, as the annual growth rate in exports was 16.7 percentage points higher than imports, Wang said.

Data from the MOC showed the nation's service trade sector has continued to attract increasing foreign investment.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the trade service sector amounted to US$29.74 billion in the first eight months, up 36.75 percent from the same period last year, according to the MOC.

(Xinhua News Agency October 27, 2010)