BEIJING, Oct. 10 -- China's services trade saw rapid growth in the first eight months of the year, including a steep increase in the trade of travel-related services, official data showed on Thursday.

The country's services trade totaled nearly 4.89 trillion yuan (691.24 billion U.S. dollars) between January and August, up 14.3 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports exceeded 2 trillion yuan, up 13.3 percent, and services imports jumped 15.1 percent to over 2.88 trillion yuan, resulting in a deficit of 874.88 billion yuan.

Trade in travel-related services skyrocketed 45 percent to surpass 1.33 trillion yuan, and trade in knowledge-intensive services rose 4.4 percent to nearly 1.9 trillion yuan.