BEIJING, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign service trade totaled 2.61 trillion yuan (about 377 billion U.S. dollars) during the first half of the year, up 2.6 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Monday.

In breakdown, service exports grew 9 percent from a year earlier to 933.37 billion yuan, while imports dipped 0.6 percent to 1.68 trillion yuan.

The service trade deficit amounted to 745.71 billion yuan in the first six months, down 10.5 percent year on year.

The service trade growth came amid strong development of China's service industry, which reported an output growth of 7 percent in the January-June period.

Monday's data also showed the country's trade of knowledge-intensive services maintained rapid expansion, increasing 9.4 percent year on year to 892.39 billion yuan.

Imports of knowledge-intensive services grew by 6.5 percent to 424.98 billion yuan, while exports grew by 12.1 percent to 467.41 billion yuan, showed the MOC data.