BEIJING, April 29 -- China's services trade saw steady growth in the first quarter of the year, including a steep increase in the trade of travel-related services, official data showed on Tuesday.

The country's services trade totaled 1.97 trillion yuan (about 273.5 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, up 8.7 percent year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Services exports reached 835.15 billion yuan, up 12.2 percent from a year earlier, and services imports rose 6.2 percent to 1.14 trillion yuan, resulting in a deficit of 303.88 billion yuan.

Trade in travel-related services continued robust growth momentum, jumping 21.8 percent year on year to reach 584.9 billion yuan, the data showed.

Meanwhile, trade in knowledge-intensive services rose 2.6 percent year on year to 752.49 billion yuan.