China's service trade deficit drops in October

BEIJING - China's service trade deficit continued to decline in October, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said Monday.

The deficit stood at 117.5 billion yuan (about $17.84 billion) last month, down from 146 billion yuan in September, SAFE said. Income from trade in services was 115.5 billion yuan, while expenditure totaled 233 billion yuan.

Trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transport, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.

Tourism is a major source of service trade deficit. The tourism deficit came in at 101.3 billion yuan in October, down from 114 billion yuan a month ago.

China regularly registers a deficit in service trade due to huge domestic demand. The government has channeled more energy into improving the service sector, including measures to gradually open up the finance, education, culture and medical industries.