Although affected by the international financial crisis, the imports and exports of China service trade in 2008 still kept its original increasing trend , but created the largest trade deficit since 1997. The latest data released by Ministry of Commerce shows, in 2008, the total amount of the imports and exports of China service trade(based on the caliber statistics of the international income and expense, excluding government service, similarly hereinafter) is USD 304.45 billion, which increased by 21.3% compared to last year, down 9.6 percentage points . Among that, the amounts of exports and imports are USD 146.45 billion and USD 158 billion separately, representing year-on-year growths of 20.4% and 22.2%, down 12.7 and 6.6 percentage points.

As the growth rate of service trade imports is greater than that of the exports, the scale of the trade deficit further expanded. The year 2008 became the largest trade deficit year since 1997, in which, the trade deficit of service trade reached USD 11.56 billion, increasing by 51.9% compared to last year. It mainly focuses on 4 trades: the transportation, insurance, finance and patent royalty and licensed fees.

The surplus appeared in 8 trades, including the architecture, tourism, consultation, computer & information, and other business services. Among them, the largest surplus comes from the architecture trade, which reached a surplus of USD 5.97 billion;

Affected by the financial crisis, the export growth rates of all China service trades were suffocated. Generally, all the growth rates fell back, except the consultation export, which saw a year-on-year growth of 8.8 %. However, the affection to the high value-added service trades, represented by the insurance, computer & information and consultation, was weaker.

China Hong Kong, US, EU, Japan and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) are the front 5 service trade partners of China. In 2008, the imports and exports of service trade with the above 5 partners reached USD 208.25 billion, which took 68.4% of the total imports and exports of service trade.

Compared with the cargo trade, Chinese service trade development is facing with major challenges in 2009. The Ministry of Commerce predicts, shocked by the financial crisis, the decrease of overseas demands will lead to the decrease of service trade. Parts of the trades are more affected. So service trade will” keep pace with Chinese economy and cargo trade”.

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