BEIJING — China's foreign service trade totaled 2.61 trillion yuan (about $377 billion) during the first half of the year, up 2.6 percent year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Aug 5.

In breakdown, service exports grew 9 percent from a year earlier to 933.37 billion yuan, while imports dipped 0.6 percent to 1.68 trillion yuan.

The service trade deficit amounted to 745.71 billion yuan in the first six months, down 10.5 percent year-on-year.

The service trade growth came amid strong development of China's service industry, which reported an output growth of 7 percent in the January-June period.

Data released on Aug 5 also showed the country's trade of knowledge-intensive services maintained rapid expansion, increasing 9.4 percent year-on-year to 892.39 billion yuan.

Imports of knowledge-intensive services grew by 6.5 percent to 424.98 billion yuan, while exports grew by 12.1 percent to 467.41 billion yuan, showed the MOC data.