[Ministry of Commerce: 337.63 billion yuan in import and export of travel services in the first quarter up 56.6 percent over the same period last year] China's trade in services continued to grow in the first quarter of 2023. The total volume of imports and exports of services was 1.58401 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.7% over the same period last year. Of this total, exports totaled 680.51 billion yuan, down 4.7 percent, 7.1 percentage points lower than in January-February; imports totaled 903.5 billion yuan, up 21.6 percent; and the trade deficit in services was 222.99 billion yuan. The proportion of trade in knowledge-intensive services has increased. In the first quarter, imports and exports of knowledge-intensive services totaled 694.7 billion yuan, an increase of 12.8 percent over the same period last year, accounting for 43.9 percent of the total import and export of services, up 1.6 percentage points from the same period last year. Travel services have been significantly restored. In the first quarter, the import and export of travel services totaled 337.63 billion yuan, an increase of 56.6 percent over the same period last year. Of this total, exports increased by 38.4 percent and imports increased by 58 percent.