BEIJING - China's foreign trade in services saw a deficit of 50.9 billion yuan ($8.27 billion) in May, official data showed on Tuesday.

The figure was down from a deficit of 54.5 billion yuan in April, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement on its website.

Income from trade in services stood at 129.1 billion yuan last month, while expenditure in service trade reached 180.1 billion yuan, according to the statement.

In the first five months, the combined service trade deficit stood at 306.3 billion yuan, the SAFE said.

Although China overtook the United States to become the world's largest goods trader for the first time in 2013 and boasted a hefty surplus in trade of goods, a large deficit can be seen in its service trade.

Data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that service trade deficit reached $118.46 billion last year, up from $89.7 billion in 2012 and $54.92 billion in 2011.

The SAFE started to issue monthly data on trade in services in January 2014 to improve the transparency of balance of payments statistics.

China's April services growth quickens slightly	Services trade growth outpaces that of goods