BEIJING, April 30 -- China's deficit in foreign service trade reached 92.1 billion yuan (around 15 billion U.S. dollars) in March, up from 76.7 billion yuan in February, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed on Thursday.

Last month, the country spent a total of 205.3 billion yuan in international service trade, according to the data.

China's deficit in foreign merchandise and service trade amounted to 103.6 billion yuan in March, contrasted with a surplus of 289.2 billion yuan in the previous month.