BEIJING, June 27 -- China continued to see a deficit in foreign service trade in May, but the figure narrowed for a second month, official data showed on Monday.

Income from trade in services stood at 22.6 billion U.S. dollars last month, while expenditure was 41.7 billion U.S. dollars, resulting in a deficit of 19.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The deficit came down from 21 billion U.S. dollars seen in March and 20.3 billion U.S. dollars in April. The total deficit in the first five months of 2016 stood at 97.1 billion U.S. dollars, the data showed.

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

China's service trade volume grew from 362.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2010 to 713 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, doubling the average international growth speed. The country is aiming to lift its service trade volume to over 1 trillion U.S. dollars by 2020.

The State Council has pledged measures to improve the development of trade in services, including gradually opening up the finance, education, culture and medical treatment sectors.

In May, China saw a surplus of 48.1 billion U.S. dollars in foreign merchandise trade.