BEIJING, June 7 -- China's services trade sustained fast growth momentum in the first four months of this year, with travel-related services recording rapid increases, official data showed on Friday.

The country's services trade totaled 2.43 trillion yuan (about 341.74 billion U.S. dollars) in the first four months, up 16.8 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports came in at 984.69 billion yuan in the January-April period, rising 11 percent from the same period last year, and services imports went up 21.2 percent year on year to about 1.45 trillion yuan, resulting in a deficit of 462.58 billion yuan.

Travel services saw a stellar performance in the first four months, becoming a key pillar of China's services trade. Imports and exports of travel services totaled 660.03 billion yuan from January to April, a remarkable increase of 48.6 percent year on year.

Trade in knowledge-intensive services rose 6.4 percent year on year to 963.72 billion yuan, the data revealed.