BEIJING, July 28 -- China's trade in services expanded 15.3 percent year on year in the first half of this year to 285 billion U.S. dollars, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed on Monday.

Exports of services rose 18.2 percent to 113 billion U.S. dollars while imports grew 13.6 percent to 172 billion U.S. dollars during the period.

The service trade deficit in the first half stood at 58.4 billion U.S. dollars, up 5.6 percent year on year. The ministry said that the deficit mainly stemmed from tourism, transport, patent royalties and licensed fees, and insurance.

Meanwhile, service trade keeps gaining an increasing share of general trade and its growth outpaced that of goods trade by 14.1 percentage points in the first half.

As of the end of June, service trade accounted for 12.3 percent of China's total trade, up 1.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

Exports of financial services, movies and videos, computer and information services and consulting were areas that saw the fastest growth.