The value of China's trade in services grew 12.9 percent on a yearly basis to 5.98 trillion yuan ($884.44 billion) in 2022, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

In the meantime, service exports expanded 12.1 percent year-on-year to 2.85 trillion yuan, and service imports amounted to 3.13 trillion yuan, up 13.5 percent on a yearly basis, resulting in a deficit of 275.71 billion yuan, the ministry said in an online statement on Monday.

In contrast to the goods trade, trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible services such as transportation, finance, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.

The ministry's data also showed that the trade in knowledge-intensive services grew steadily last year. The imports and exports of knowledge-intensive services totaled 2.51 trillion yuan in 2022, increasing 7.8 percent from a year earlier.

Travel services continued to recover in 2022, as trade in this sector advanced 8.4 percent from a year earlier to 855.98 billion yuan, according to the Ministry of Commerce.