Customers shop at a duty-free shopping mall in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province on Nov. 30, 2025. The Haikou Customs supervised a total of 2.38 billion yuan (about 337 million U.S. dollars) in duty-free sales during the first month (from Nov. 1 to 30) of the implementation of the expanded offshore duty-free policy, up 27.1 percent year on year. (Xinhua/Guo Cheng)

China's services trade maintained steady expansion in the first 10 months of 2025, rising 7.5 percent year-on-year to 6.58 trillion yuan ($926 billion), driven in part by the strong momentum of travel services exports, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Wednesday.

Observers said that the sustained growth of China's services trade reflects the country's ongoing efforts to expand market access amid rising global uncertainty, which is injecting fresh momentum into domestic economic transformation and creating greater opportunities for international partners.

Data from MOFCOM's Department of Trade in Services showed that from January to October, China's services exports reached 2.91 trillion yuan, up 14.3 percent, while imports rose 2.6 percent to 3.68 trillion yuan. As a result, the services trade deficit narrowed by 269.39 billion yuan.

The growth potential of China's services trade is significant, supported by rising per capita GDP and a broad range of policy measures, Bian Yongzu, a senior researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Bian noted that as household incomes rise and demand for a higher quality of life increases, services such as travel, training, and fitness are expanding rapidly. "This trend is strengthening and optimizing China's domestic services sector and opening up broader space for the development of services trade," he said.

The data showed solid growth in China's exports of knowledge-intensive services from January to October, which rose 6.4 percent year-on-year. 

Within this category, other business services and telecommunications, computer and information services grew 4.2 percent and 9.9 percent respectively. Exports of knowledge-intensive services increased 9.5 percent, while imports rose 2.3 percent.

Another highlight was the rapid expansion of travel services. In the same period, total trade in travel services rose 8.5 percent to 1.81 trillion yuan, with exports surging 52.5 percent and imports up 2.3 percent, MOFCOM data showed.

"China still has room to develop high-end services such as healthcare, education, and finance compared with more advanced economies. This structural gap is one of the drivers behind the growth of outward-oriented services trade," Bian said.

He added that the sector remains in a phase of rapid growth, supported by rising domestic demand, market potential, and global linkages, which together are expected to sustain a long-term upward trajectory and create opportunities for other economies and international businesses.

In recent years, China has taken steady steps to expand the opening-up of its services sector to foster new drivers of high-quality development. Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development call for promoting high-standard opening up, boosting the development of trade in services by encouraging exports, refining the negative list-based management system for cross-border trade, and improving standards.

China's services sector has continued to show strong momentum, with emerging industries steadily expanding, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in October. In the first three quarters of 2025, the sector grew 5.4 percent year-on-year, contributing 60.7 percent to overall economic growth and adding 3.1 percentage points to GDP, highlighting the growing importance of services in powering China's economy.

MOFCOM spokesperson He Yongqian said on November 27 that China will further ease market access for foreign investment, stressing that "efforts will focus on expanding access and openness in the services sector," including further pilot openings in areas such as telecommunications and healthcare.

China's expanding services consumption is expected not only to bolster the country's economic transition, but also to inject fresh momentum into the global economy, Bian said.

For many advanced economies with strong services industries, rising demand from the Chinese market will serve as a powerful driver, attracting more countries and enterprises to deepen their presence in China and tap into its rapidly growing consumer base, the expert noted.