In the first quarter of this year, China's trade in services continued to grow rapidly. The total imports and exports of services amounted to RMB1456.99 billion, up 25.8% year-on-year. To break this down, services exports registered RMB713.98 billion, up 30.8%; imports RMB743.01 billion, up 21.3%. Growth in services exports outpaced that in services imports by 9.5 percentage points, driving trade deficit in services down by 56.4% to RMB29.03 billion. In March, China's service exports and imports totaled RMB503.6 billion, up 14.1% year-on-year. The main features were as follows.

Trade in knowledge-intensive services grew steadily. In the first quarter, the imports and exports of knowledge-intensive services amounted to RMB615.66 billion, an increase of 14.1%. Among them, exports of knowledge-intensive services amounted to RMB350.06 billion, up 16.3%; areas with faster growth in exports were telecommunications computer and information services, other commercial services, and intellectual property royalties, up 22.1%, 14.6% and 11.2% respectively. Knowledge-intensive services imports registered RMB265.6 billion, up 11.4%; the area with faster growth in exports was insurance services, with a growth rate of 134.9%.

The imports and exports of tourist services recovered. In the first quarter, China's tourist services imports and exports stood at RMB215.55 billion, up 12.6%, with exports down 15.3% and imports up 15.4%. Excluding tourist services, China's services imports and exports grew by 28.4% in the first quarter, with exports up 32.3% and imports up 23.7%; compared with the same period in 2019, service imports and exports grew by 55.8%, with exports up 70% and imports up 40.7%.

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