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Original title: The deficit in trade in services narrowed in August before imports of travel services fell
Beijing Commercial Daily News (Reporter Tao Feng Lu Yinling) On October 15, the Ministry of Commerce held a regular press conference. Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said that since the beginning of this year, the overall scale of China’s services trade has been affected by multiple factors, such as the new corona pneumonia epidemic. It has decreased, but the deficit has narrowed, the structure has improved and the share of knowledge-intensive trade in services has continued to rise.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in the first eight months, China’s total service imports and exports amounted to 2.989.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.3%. Among them, exports were 1237 million yuan, down 2.2%, imports were 1,752.62 million yuan, down 24%. The services trade deficit has been reduced substantially. From January to August, China’s service exports fell 21.8 percentage points less than imports, leading to a 50.6% drop in the services trade deficit to 515.62 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of 525.2 billion. million yuan.
The analysis of the peaks shows that the sharp reduction in the services trade deficit in the first eight months is a continuation of the trend of recent years. With the improvement of the international competitiveness of China’s services trade, since 2017, the growth rate of China’s services exports has been higher than that of imports. The deficit in 2019 has been reduced by 176 billion yuan from the previous year. Since the beginning of this year, affected by the epidemic, this trend has continued, and the fall in services exports is 21.8 percentage points lower than that of imports, which means that the deficit continues to fall.
At the same time, services exports showed strong resistance. In the first eight months, China’s service exports fell 2.2%, which was less than that of the world’s leading service trading countries. From January to August, the import and export of knowledge-intensive services was RMB 1,317,390 million, an increase of 8.5%, accounting for 44.1% of the total import and export of services, an increase of 10.1 percentage points.
In an interview with a reporter for the Beijing Commercial Daily, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the structure of China’s trade in services is constantly being optimized. The obvious growth points have gradually improved the structure of trade in services.
The sharp drop in imports of travel services is also a noteworthy factor. Gao Feng noted that “ travel service imports have always accounted for a large proportion of China’s service imports, and in 2019 they accounted for more than 50%. Since the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the new corona pneumonia epidemic, outbound travel for Chinese citizens has been significantly reduced. Imports of travel services fell 46.2%, resulting in a 24% drop in overall service imports, which is also a major reason for the sharp decline in the services trade deficit. “
“The reduction of the services trade deficit shows that China’s position in world services trade is becoming increasingly important. Previously, the asymmetry of tourism in services trade was more obvious. The opportunities that China brings to the world are greater than the opportunities the world offers China. ” It shows that China’s income level has risen and the spillover effect has become stronger. “Bai Ming said:” However, during the epidemic, whether it is Chinese overseas travel or overseas travel to China , has been hampered. The epidemic has affected various forms of trade in services. Especially the movement of natural persons has the greatest impact. “
