BEIJING, Nov. 5 -- China's services trade saw rapid growth in the first three quarters of the year, including a steep increase in the trade of travel-related services, official data showed on Tuesday.

The country's services trade totaled nearly 5.52 trillion yuan (about 777.29 billion U.S. dollars) between January and September, up 14.5 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports exceeded 2.27 trillion yuan, up 15.3 percent, and services imports rose 14 percent to over 3.24 trillion yuan, resulting in a deficit of 971.46 billion yuan.

Trade in travel-related services skyrocketed 42.8 percent to surpass 1.5 trillion yuan, and trade in knowledge-intensive services rose 5.3 percent to 2.13 trillion yuan.