BEIJING - China's services trade saw rapid growth in the first eight months of the year, including a steep increase in the trade of travel-related services, official data showed on Thursday.

The country's services trade totaled nearly 4.89 trillion yuan ($691.24 billion) between January and August, up 14.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports exceeded 2 trillion yuan, up 13.3 percent, and services imports jumped 15.1 percent to over 2.88 trillion yuan, resulting in a deficit of 874.88 billion yuan.

Trade in travel-related services skyrocketed 45 percent to surpass 1.33 trillion yuan, and trade in knowledge-intensive services rose 4.4 percent to nearly 1.9 trillion yuan.