China's total service trade from January to August this year has increased by three percent year-over-year (YoY), reaching 3.57 trillion yuan (500 billion U.S. dollars), said an official of Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services in Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Saturday.

The service exports have reached 1.26 trillion yuan so far this year, increasing by 9.7 percent YoY, while the service imports were down by 0.3 percent YoY to 2.3 trillion yuan.

The official said the growth rate of service exports has further improved. In August, the growth rate was 11.5 percent month-over-month, which was faster than that of the last seven months.

It shows that China's service exports' competitiveness is improving continuously, said the official.

From January to August, China's growth rate in service exports was 10 percent higher than that of service imports. The service trade deficit has decreased by 10.1 percent to 1.04 trillion yuan, which is 117.5 less than that in the same period last year.

China's knowledge-intensive service trade reached 1.21 trillion yuan so far this year, up 10.6 percent YoY. The speed of growth is 7.6 percent higher than of the total service trade. Personal cultural entertainment services, telecommunications and information services, and financial services have grown rapidly.