Services sector Photo: VCG

China’s services trade totaled 2.49 trillion yuan ($345.8 billion) in the first four months of the year, up 4.9 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) showed on Friday. Travel and transportation services remained key growth drivers, while knowledge-intensive services exports continued to expand at a solid pace.

Services exports rose 15 percent year-on-year to 985 billion yuan during the January-April period, while imports edged down 0.8 percent to 1.5 trillion yuan. The services trade deficit narrowed to 515.32 billion yuan, shrinking by 139.74 billion yuan from a year earlier.

Knowledge-intensive services accounted for 44.4 percent of total services trade in the first four months, according to MOFCOM. Total trade in the sector reached 1.10418 trillion yuan, up 5.1 percent year-on-year.

Exports of knowledge-intensive services increased 11.7 percent to 544.09 billion yuan. Among them, personal cultural and entertainment services and intellectual property royalties recorded the fastest growth, up 39.5 percent and 20.8 percent, respectively.

Industry observers said that amid profound shifts in the global economic landscape and accelerating technological and industrial transformation, knowledge-intensive services have become an important driver for deeper integration between manufacturing and modern services.

In addition, travel services exports and transportation services imports also posted robust growth during the period, in line with earlier policy efforts by MOFCOM to promote travel services exports and expand high-value services trade.

Travel services exports jumped 30.4 percent year-on-year to 147.15 billion yuan in the first four months, the fastest growth among the country’s top five services export categories. Transportation services imports rose 24.9 percent to 316.45 billion yuan, the strongest increase among the top five import categories.

Promoting travel services exports and expanding inbound consumption are important measures for advancing services trade and enhancing China’s international influence, while also serving as key drivers for developing services consumption and upgrading the consumer market, according to MOFCOM.

Policy measures rolled out by MOFCOM on March 16 were designed to strengthen national tourism branding, enhance targeted global marketing, expand inbound tourism offerings and improve service quality across the sector.

This year, China has rolled out a range of targeted measures aimed at boosting the development of the services sector. Meanwhile, China's services sector is moving further into the center of the country's high-quality development agenda at the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period.

Both the outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) and this year's government work report have made specific arrangements for this sector, according to Xinhua News Agency.

China's service sector has played an increasingly robust role in driving growth in recent years. In the first quarter of 2026, the service sector's added value accounted for 61.7 percent of China's gross domestic product, up 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier, per Xinhua.

Global Times