BEIJING - China's services trade continued to expand in volume in the first nine months of this year, while its deficit narrowed, official data showed Thursday.

The country's services trade topped 4.47 trillion yuan ($617 billion) during the January-September period, up 18.2 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports rose 20.5 percent year-on-year to 2.15 trillion yuan, and imports climbed 16.1 percent to 2.32 trillion yuan, leading to a deficit of 176.24 billion yuan, down 19.6 percent from a year ago.