BEIJING, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's service trade totaled 4.44 trillion yuan (about 629.8 billion U.S. dollars) in the first 10 months of this year, up 2.6 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

Service exports increased by 9 percent year on year to 1.58 trillion yuan, while imports came in at 2.86 trillion yuan, down 0.7 percent from a year ago, said the MOC.

The service trade deficit stood at 1.28 trillion yuan in the period, dipping by 10.4 percentage points year on year.

The MOC data also showed China's trade of knowledge-intensive services maintained rapid expansion, increasing by 10.7 percent year on year to 1.51 trillion yuan.

Exports of knowledge-intensive services grew by 13 percent to 796 billion yuan, while imports grew by 8.2 percent to 717.6 billion yuan.

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