BEIJING — China saw a widened deficit in foreign service trade in August compared with the previous month, according to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE).

The service trade deficit was 143.6 billion yuan ($22.6 billion) in August, expanding from 107.6 billion yuan in July, and 90.9 billion yuan in June, data showed.

Income from trade in services in August stood at 116.4 billion yuan, similar to the previous month, while expenditures in service trade increased sharply to 260 billion yuan from the 224.5 billion in July, the data revealed.

Trade in services covers intangible products such as transportation, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.

Foreign merchandise trade saw a surplus of 369.5 billion yuan in August, with total income reaching around 1.17 trillion yuan.

SAFE began issuing monthly data on service trade in January 2014 to improve transparency on balance of payments. Since the start of 2015, monthly data on merchandise trade has also been included in the reports.

China’s State Council has pledged to accelerate the development of trade in services, including the gradual opening up of the finance, education, culture and medical treatment sectors.