China foreign service trade up 2.6 pct in H1

BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign service trade totaled 2.61 trillion yuan (about 377 billion U.S. dollars) during the first half of the year, up 2.6 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

Service exports grew 9 percent from a year earlier to 933.37 billion yuan, while imports dipped 0.6 percent to 1.68 trillion yuan.

The service trade deficit amounted to 745.71 billion yuan in H1, down 10.5 percent year on year.