China sees bigger service trade deficit

BEIJING, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's service imports continued to substantially outvalue exports in the first eight months due to increasing domestic demand.

The value of service imports gained 12.2 percent year on year to 2.13 trillion yuan (more than 320 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-August period, while exports only increased 4.4 percent to 926.69 billion yuan, resulting in a 1.2-trillion-yuan deficit, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday in a statement.

The gap, nearly 20 percent more than the same period a year earlier, was attributed to strong demand for service imports in tourism, transportation and other traditional sectors.