In the past two months, our country's service trade deficit has narrowed by 86.52 billion yuan compared to the same period last year.

By Reporter Liu Meng

On April 7, data released by the Ministry of Commerce showed that from January to February 2026, the total value of China’s services imports and exports was 1.14T yuan (RMB, the same below), down 3.9% year on year. Of this total, exports were 442.49B yuan, up 4.7%; imports were 258.1B yuan, down 8.7%. The services trade deficit was 86.52B yuan, narrowing by 865.2 billion yuan from the same period last year. The major features are as follows:

The share of knowledge-intensive services imports and exports has increased. From January to February, knowledge-intensive services imports and exports totaled 248.23B yuan, down 3.2%, accounting for 42.5% of total services imports and exports—up 0.3 percentage points from the same period last year. Among them, knowledge-intensive services exports were 238.04B yuan, up 2.4%; knowledge-intensive services imports were 362.59B yuan, down 8.4%.

The scale of travel, other commercial services, and transportation ranks in the top three. From January to February, travel imports and exports were 60.96B yuan, down 11.8%, making it the largest area of China’s services trade. Exports were 609.6 billion yuan, up 22.5%; imports were 301.63B yuan, down 16.5%. Other commercial services and transportation had import and export values of 272.32B yuan and 212.23B yuan, respectively.

Fu Yifu, a research fellow at Jiangsu Merchant Bank, said to reporters of the Securities Daily that in the first two months of this year, China’s services trade showed a pattern of overall pressure on totals alongside an optimization of structure.

On the one hand, the total value of imports and exports declined year on year, mainly due to factors such as a slump in travel imports, reflecting that the external environment is complex and changeable and that it will take some time for residents’ cross-border consumption to recover. On the other hand, services exports have continued to grow, the services trade deficit has narrowed significantly, and the features of structural optimization have become increasingly prominent.

Fu Yifu further analyzed, saying: “In the first two months, the share of knowledge-intensive services imports and exports increased further, with exports maintaining growth, indicating that China’s services trade is accelerating its shift from traditional labor-intensive models to knowledge-driven and technology-led transformation. Rapid growth in travel exports has become a highlight, reflecting the positive effects of the continuing push of inbound consumption policies.”

Chen Jianwei, a professor at the Institute of National Opening-Up at the University of International Business and Economics, said in an interview with reporters of the Securities Daily that the 4.7% year-on-year growth on the services export side reflects the resilience of China’s services brand competitiveness. In particular, the exports of knowledge-intensive services have performed steadily, effectively offsetting the pressure from the decline in imports. The deficit has shrunk significantly in size, suggesting that China’s services trade is moving away from the traditional deficit-driven model and transitioning to a healthy state with more balanced receipts and payments.

At the State Council executive meeting held on March 27, it was pointed out that the modern services sector is an important component of the modern industrial system and is related to high-quality development and the overall drive for modernization. The meeting clarified that it is necessary to focus on key areas with strong spillover effects, improve policy supporting measures and institutional mechanisms, increase support such as in fiscal and taxation, financial resources, and factor guarantees, expand market access in the services sector and areas open to opening-up, and fully release market vitality.

Fu Yifu said that “expanding market access and opening-up areas in the services sector” will attract more global high-end services factors to cluster, promote growth in knowledge-intensive services exports, and further optimize the structure of services trade.

“Upgrading and expanding the services sector can strengthen the foundation of services trade from the supply side. By improving policy supporting packages and ensuring factors, it directly enhances the international business operation capability of domestic services enterprises. Expanding market access and opening-up areas in the services sector helps bring in high-quality foreign-invested services, thereby driving domestic industries to move toward a modernized system. In addition, targeted delivery of support policies such as fiscal and taxation and financial policies will accelerate the digital transformation of key areas such as telecommunications, finance, and transportation, thus increasing the export share of higher value-added services.” Chen Jianwei said that as market vitality is fully released, the services sector will shift from being supported solely by domestic demand to being promoted mutually by both domestic and international demand, becoming an important engine for high-quality development of China’s trade.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

Key words:

                                                            Trade
                                                            Services trade