China's Service Trade Exceeds $300 Bln in 2008

China saw its export and import volume in service trade (excluding government service) total 304.45 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 21.3 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday.

The growth rate was down 9.6 percentage points compared with 2007, the MOC said on its web site, adding that the financial crisis had contributed to the drop of growth rate.

Service export hit 146.45 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 20.4 percent. Service import was 158 billion U.S. dollars, up 22.2percent year on year.

The export volume moved China to the fifth biggest service export country from the seventh in 2007. The country remained the fifth largest in terms of service import, according to MOC.

The trade deficit expanded to 11.56 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, up 51.9 percent from 2007, the largest since 1997.

China's Hong Kong, the U.S., the European Union, Japan, and the Association of South East Asian Nations are the five biggest service trade partners of the China's mainland, according to MOC.

The combined trade volume with the five partners stood at 208.25 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 68.4 percent of the total.