China’s 2016 services trade expected to exceed $750 billion: ministry

BEIJING The value of China’s services trade is expected to grow rapidly and exceed $750 billion in 2016 but the country’s export sector remains under pressure, the commerce ministry said on Tuesday.

Global commodities markets have to cope with reductions in overcapacity in 2016 while the effect of trade frictions is becoming more obvious, the ministry said.

China’s economy continues to face big downward pressure, it said in one of several statements on its website. External demand remains weak and the situation for foreign trade remains “severe and complicated” in 2016, it added.

China will stabilize the scale and speed of foreign investment inflows, commerce minister Gao Hucheng said, one of the statements posted on the ministry’s website on Tuesday.

Bilateral trade between China and “one belt, one road” countries totaled $995.5 billion in 2015, or 25.1 percent of total foreign trade, one of the statements said.

President Xi Jinping’s “one belt, one road” initiative is the new Silk Road and economic belt spreading from Western China to Central Asia and onwards to Europe.

China’s foreign services trade deficit was $137 billion in 2015, as the country faces a large gulf in spending between Chinese who spend more abroad than foreigners in China in industries ranging from tourism to education.

(Reporting by Sue-Lin Wong- Editing by Jacqueline Wong)