China's service trade up 13.4%

China's service trade grew 13.4 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2013 to reach 390.5 billion U.S. dollars, official data showed on Tuesday. According to the Ministry of Commerce, service exports rose 6.8 percent from the same period last year to 146.4 billion dollars, while imports surged 17.8 percent to 244.1 billion dollars. The service trade deficit expanded to 97.7 billion dollars, up 39.4 percent. Tourism and transportation service sectors contributed the most to the total deficit, ending 58.3 billion and 41.7 billion dollars in the red, respectively. Meanwhile, the trade volume of the transportation service sector totaled 98.5 billion dollars, up 6.4 percent year on year, while tourism service sector trade totaled 129.3 billion dollars, up 14.5 percent. The insurance, consulting, as well as patent and franchise service sectors saw exports grow 21.7 percent, 19.9 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively. Computer and information service imports surged 53.6 percent.