BEIJING - China's service trade rose 3.3 percent to 1.56 trillion yuan ($245.21 billion) in the first four months, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

Of the total, service exports reached 746.21 billion yuan, up 23.2 percent year-on-year, and service imports stood at 818.24 billion yuan, down 10 percent year-on-year.

Compared with the same period in 2019 or the pre-pandemic level, however, service trade dropped 10.3 percent, with service exports up 20.5 percent and service imports down 27.3 percent.

Trade of knowledge-intensive services has been rising in the first four months as it hit 732.53 billion yuan, up 14.9 percent year-on-year, accounting for 46.8 percent of the total service trade, up 4.7 percentage points year-on-year.

Trade of travel services continued to decline. In the first four months, China's trade of travel services stood at 248.19 billion yuan, down 41.3 percent year-on-year.

In April alone, China's service trade hit 406.19 billion yuan, up 12.3 percent year-on-year, with service exports climbing 24.3 percent and imports growing 2.7 percent. The fastest growth was registered in three sectors -- financial, transport and insurance services.