Beijing: China's trade in services expanded by 6 percent year on year during the first five months of 2026, with exports in travel and knowledge-intensive services showing significant growth, as indicated by official data released on Wednesday.According to Emirates News Agency, the total value of service imports and exports reached nearly 3.1 trillion yuan (approximately US$455.4 billion) from January to May this year. This information was provided by data from the Ministry of Commerce.A closer examination of the data reveals that service exports rose by 15.9 percent, reaching 1.23 trillion yuan, while imports saw a modest increase of 0.4 percent, totaling 1.87 trillion yuan. Notably, the service trade deficit reduced by 160.72 billion yuan compared to the previous year, now standing at 638.56 billion yuan.Throughout this period, the knowledge-intensive service trade experienced a growth of 5.4 percent year on year, amounting to 1.37 trillion yuan and constituting 44.2 percent of the total service trad e. Travel service exports were particularly robust, increasing by 31.3 percent to 188.5 billion yuan, marking the fastest growth among the top five service export sectors.
