China News Service, November 3 According to the Ministry of Commerce website news, on the 3rd, the head of the Service Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced the development of service trade in the first three quarters of 2020.

In the first three quarters, due to the superimposed influence of factors such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic, my country's service trade has declined, but it has stabilized. Service exports have performed significantly better than imports, the trade deficit has decreased, and the proportion of knowledge-intensive service trade has increased.

　　From January to September, my country's total service imports and exports totaled 3.390 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year decrease of 15.7%.

Among them, exports were 1,399.5 billion yuan, down 1.5%; imports, 1990.5 billion yuan, down 23.5%.

Data map: container terminal.

China News Agency reporter Chen Wenshe

　　Mainly present the following characteristics:

　　The growth rate of service exports in September turned from negative to positive.

In September, our service exports were 162.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.1%, and the monthly growth rate turned from negative to positive.

Among them, insurance service exports were 3.9 billion yuan, an increase of 83.1%; construction services exports were 19.5 billion yuan, an increase of 56.0%; maintenance and repair services exports were 4.5 billion yuan, an increase of 27.0%; transportation exports were 33.6 billion yuan, an increase of 21.8%.

　　The deficit in trade in services has been substantially reduced.

In the first three quarters, the decline in my country's service exports stabilized, and the decline in exports was 22 percentage points less than imports, which led to a 50.0% drop in the service trade deficit to 591 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 590.1 billion yuan.

　　The proportion of knowledge-intensive service trade increased.

From January to September, my country’s knowledge-intensive service imports and exports amounted to 1,493.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%, accounting for 44.0% of the total service imports and exports, an increase of 10 percentage points.

Among them, the export of knowledge-intensive services was 779.5 billion yuan, an increase of 8.6%, accounting for 55.7% of the total service exports, an increase of 5.2 percentage points.

Imports of knowledge-intensive services were 713.6 billion yuan, an increase of 9.4%, accounting for 35.8% of total service imports, an increase of 10.8 percentage points.

　　The import and export of travel services dropped significantly.

The continuous spread of the epidemic has severely affected the import and export of travel services worldwide.

From January to September, my country's import and export of travel services was 806.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 46.3%, dragging down the overall decline in service trade.

Excluding travel services, my country's service imports and exports increased by 2.4% in the first three quarters.

　　The person in charge said that at present, the new crown pneumonia epidemic is still spreading globally, and some countries and regions have rebounded. The world economy is in recession, international demand is shrinking, and trade frictions occur from time to time. The stable development of my country's service trade still faces many challenges. In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will seize opportunities in the digital economy, steadily respond to various challenges, promote the high-quality development of trade in services, and help form a new development pattern with domestic and international cycles as the mainstay and mutual promotion of domestic and international cycles.