China's trade in services surged by 21.9 percent year-on-year during the first four months of 2022 to reach more than 1.9 trillion yuan ($290 billion), the Ministry of Commerce announced Tuesday.

Service exports came in at 933.26 billion yuan, up 25.1 percent from a year ago, while imports increased 19.1 percent on a yearly basis to 974.23 billion yuan. That has resulted in a year-on-year decline of 43.1 percent in the trade deficit during the period, which was 40.97 billion yuan.

In April alone, the imports and exports of trade in services was 450.2 billion yuan, up 10.8 percent from a year before.

The data also showed the trade in knowledge-intensive services grew steadily for the first four months. The imports and exports of knowledge-intensive services totaled 800.99 billion yuan, increasing 9.3 percent from a year earlier.

Exports of knowledge-intensive services were 456.36 billion yuan, growing 10.4 percent year-on-year. The exports of telecommunications, computer and information services, and other commercial services went up 13 percent and 12.4 percent respectively, showing faster growth than other sectors.

Imports of knowledge-intensive services stood at 344.63 billion yuan, increasing 8 percent year-on-year. Import growth in insurance services was as high as 91.2 percent.

Tourism services also saw continuous recovery during the January-April period, as the total trade in tourism services grew by 9.5 percent on a yearly basis to 271.83 billion yuan.

Excluding tourism, China's trade in services surged by 24.3 percent year-on-year during the first four months. Growth excluding tourism services is 50.5 percent when compared with the same period in 2019.

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