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 on June 3.

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.