China's service trade fell during the first quarter of the year due to the novel coronavirus epidemic, but the trade structure has kept improving with a narrowing deficit, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed Saturday.

Service trade totaled 1.15 trillion yuan (about 164.6 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, down 10.8 percent year on year, the MOC said in an online statement.

Service exports amounted to 444.28 billion yuan during the first quarter, down 4.1 percent, while imports fell 14.5 percent year on year to 708.02 billion yuan.

The service trade deficit stood at 263.74 billion yuan during the period, compared with a deficit of 365 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2019.

The ministry highlighted strong resilience in China's trade of knowledge-intensive services amid the epidemic, which jumped 7.8 percent year on year.

In contrast to merchandise trade, trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transportation, tourism, telecommunications, construction, advertising, computing and accounting.