BEIJING, April 3 -- China's services trade registered rapid expansion in the first two months of the year, with notable growth observed in travel services, official data showed Wednesday.

The country's services trade totaled 1.19 trillion yuan (about 167.88 billion U.S. dollars) from January to February, marking a robust increase of 22.8 percent compared with the same period of last year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

Services imports stood at over 704.9 billion yuan, rising 26.5 percent from a year ago, while exports gained 17.9 percent year on year to 486.17 billion yuan during the reporting period, resulting in a deficit of 218.73 billion yuan.

Trade in knowledge-intensive services expanded 14.2 percent year on year to about 464.87 billion yuan in the period, the data showed.

Travel services saw remarkable growth during the period, with trade in this sector soaring 51.8 percent from a year earlier to 317.93 billion yuan, according to the ministry.