Deficit in foreign service trade widens

Source: Xinhua | 2018-09-03

China continued to see a bigger deficit in foreign service trade in July, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed.

Income from trade in services stood at US$19 billion last month, while expenditures were US$44.3 billion, giving a deficit of US$25.3 billion.

The deficit widened from the US$22.1 billion seen in June.

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

China has taken steps to improve the development of trade in services, including gradually opening up the finance, education, culture, and medical treatment sectors.

SAFE began issuing monthly data on the 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.

In July, China recorded a surplus of US$32.6 billion in its foreign merchandise trade.