BEIJING, Aug. 21 -- China's deficit from trade in services expanded in July to 15.3 billion U.S. dollars, its greatest level in 2014, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said on Thursday.

The July deficit was 6.3 billion U.S. dollars more than in June and it brought the total deficit from January to July to 74.2 billion U.S. dollars, the SAFE figures showed.

Distinct from merchandise trade, trade in services refers to the sale and delivery of intangible products such as transport, tourism, telecommunication, construction, advertising, computing and accountancy.

China is the world's largest merchandise trader but weak in the service sector.