Briefly

Service trade up in first five months

China's trade in services expanded 6 percent year-on-year in the first five months of 2026, with exports of travel and knowledge-intensive services reporting particularly strong growth, official data showed. The total value of service imports and exports reached nearly 3.1 trillion yuan ($455.4 billion) from January to May this year, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce. A breakdown of the data showed that service exports rose 15.9 percent to 1.23 trillion yuan, while imports edged up 0.4 percent to 1.87 trillion yuan. The service trade deficit narrowed by 160.72 billion yuan from one year earlier to 638.56 billion yuan.

Yuan weakens against greenback

The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, weakened 21 pips to 6.8088 against the US dollar on Thursday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System. In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day. The central parity rate of the yuan against the US dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.

XINHUA-CHINA DAILY