China's Service Trade Up 8.0% in First Half of 2025... Travel Service Exports Surge

CMG

In the first half of 2025, China's trade in services continued its steady growth. According to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce, the total value of service exports and imports in the first half of this year reached 3.88726 trillion yuan (approximately 737 trillion won), marking an 8.0% increase compared to the same period last year.

Specifically, service exports amounted to 1.6883 trillion yuan (approximately 320 trillion won), up by 15.0%, while service imports reached 2.19896 trillion yuan (approximately 417 trillion won), an increase of 3.2%. The service trade surplus stood at 510.66 billion yuan (approximately 97 trillion won), which is a decrease of 152.21 billion yuan (approximately 29 trillion won) compared to the same period last year.

One of the main features was the continued expansion of knowledge-intensive service trade. In the first half of the year, the volume of knowledge-intensive service exports and imports reached 1.50254 trillion yuan (approximately 285 trillion won), an increase of 6.0%. Among these, "other commercial services" and "postal, computer, and information services" accounted for the largest shares, recording 639.1 billion yuan (approximately 121 trillion won) and 529.38 billion yuan (approximately 101 trillion won), respectively. The growth rates for these categories were 3.1% and 12.7%, respectively. Exports of knowledge-intensive services increased by 7.8% to 865.04 billion yuan (approximately 164 trillion won), while imports rose by 3.6% to 637.5 billion yuan (approximately 121 trillion won). As a result, the net surplus reached 227.54 billion yuan (approximately 43 trillion won), expanding by 40.92 billion yuan (approximately 7.8 trillion won) compared to the same period last year.

Additionally, the travel service sector recorded the fastest growth. In the first half of the year, the volume of travel service exports and imports reached 1.080029 trillion yuan (approximately 205 trillion won), an increase of 12.3%, making it the largest sector in service trade. Within this, exports surged by 68.7%, and imports also increased by 5.5%.