From January to July 2024, my country's service trade continued to maintain rapid growth, with the total import and export of services reaching RMB 4,230.18 billion, a year-on-year increase of 14.7%. Among them, service exports were RMB 1,732.5 billion, an increase of 12.4%; service imports were RMB 2,497.68 billion, an increase of 16.4%; and the service trade deficit was RMB 765.18 billion. The growth of service trade mainly showed the following characteristics:

First, trade in knowledge-intensive services continued to maintain its growth momentum. from January to July, the total import and export of knowledge-intensive services amounted to 1,661.79 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. During this period, exports of knowledge-intensive services amounted to 944.29 billion yuan, up 3.8%, of which personal cultural and recreational services and royalties for intellectual property rights increased faster, by 16.3% and 15.7% respectively. Imports of knowledge-intensive services amounted to 717.5 billion yuan, an increase of 5.9 per cent, of which personal cultural and recreational services and other commercial services increased significantly, by 40.3 per cent and 13.6 per cent respectively.

Secondly, travel services showed a rapid growth trend. From January to July, the total import and export of travel services reached 1,140.68 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.5%, becoming the largest sector in service trade. This data reflects the strong recovery of demand for inbound and outbound travel and related services after the epidemic gradually stabilized.

Overall, my country's service trade continued to grow in many areas in the first half of 2024, especially in knowledge-intensive services and travel services, showing strong growth momentum. This shows that my country's position in global service trade is constantly improving, and it also provides more room for further expanding service exports and optimizing service import structure in the future.