BEIJING - China's trade structure has further improved as the country's service trade deficit continued to narrow in the first eight months of this year, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed Thursday.

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During the period, China reported a deficit of 515.62 billion yuan (about US$75.71 billion) in service trade, down 50.6 percent, or 527.52 billion yuan from a year ago, the ministry said.

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The country's total service trade volume reached 2.99 trillion yuan in the January-August period, down 16.3 percent year on year, according to MOC data.