China News Service, August 6, According to the website of the Ministry of Commerce, the head of the Department of Trade in Services of the Ministry of Commerce recently introduced the overall situation of China's trade in services in the first half of 2020. The person in charge stated that the scale of China's service trade declined in the first half of the year, and the overall trend was stabilizing. Service exports performed significantly better than imports, the trade deficit decreased, and the proportion of knowledge-intensive service trade increased.
The person in charge said that from January to June, China's total service imports and exports amounted to 222.728 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year decrease of 14.7%. Among them, exports were 912.79 billion yuan, down 2.2%; imports were 1,314.49 billion yuan, down 21.7%. Mainly present the following characteristics:
The deficit in trade in services has been substantially reduced. From January to June, the decline in China's service exports stabilized, and the decline in imports increased. The decline in exports was 19.5 percentage points lower than imports. This led to a 46.1% decline in the service trade deficit to 407.11 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 344.01 billion yuan.
The proportion of knowledge-intensive service trade increased. From January to June, China’s knowledge-intensive service imports and exports amounted to 974.43 billion yuan, an increase of 9.2%, accounting for 43.7% of the total service imports and exports, an increase of 9.6 percentage points. Among them, knowledge-intensive service exports amounted to 512.87 billion yuan, an increase of 9.7%, accounting for 56.2% of the total service exports, an increase of 6.1 percentage points; the areas where exports grew faster were intellectual property royalties, insurance services, telecommunications, computers, and information services. , Respectively increased by 37.2%, 18.7%, 15.2%. Imports of knowledge-intensive services amounted to 461.56 billion yuan, an increase of 8.6%, accounting for 35.1% of total service imports, an increase of 9.8%; the areas where imports grew faster were telecommunications, computer and information services, and financial services, which increased by 31.1% and 15.7 respectively %.
Imports and exports of travel services fell sharply. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, all countries have adopted strict measures to restrict the cross-border movement of people, and the import and export of travel services worldwide has been significantly affected. From January to June, China's import and export of travel services was 558.08 billion yuan, down 42.9%, of which exports fell by 45.0% and imports fell by 42.6%, which were the main factors leading to the decline in service trade. Excluding travel services, China's service imports and exports in the first half of the year increased by 2.1%, of which exports increased by 3.7% and imports increased by 0.5%.