BEIJING, April 1 -- China's services trade saw steady growth in the first two months 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 1.31 trillion yuan (about 182.51 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, up 9.9 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports reached 549.58 billion yuan, up 13 percent from a year earlier, and services imports rose 7.8 percent to 759.98 billion yuan, resulting in a deficit of 210.4 billion yuan.

Trade in travel-related services continued rapid growth momentum, jumping 28.9 percent year on year to reach 409.8 billion yuan, the data showed.

Meanwhile, trade in knowledge-intensive services rose 2.5 percent year on year to 476.65 billion yuan.