BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China's service production index went up 2.3 percent year on year in June as economic activities continued to recover, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday.

According to the NBS, the rise in June was 1.3 percentage points faster than that of May.

In the first half of 2020, the index dropped 6.1 percent from the same period last year, narrowing 5.6 percentage points from the decline in the first quarter, the NBS said.

The total value-added output of the tertiary industry grew by 1.9 percent in the second quarter year on year, reversing a 5.2 percent contraction in the first quarter, the bureau said.

In the first half, the value-added output of information transmission, software and information technology services rose 14.5 percent year on year, while that of financial services grew 6.6 percent.

Sectors once severely hit by the COVID-19 epidemic, such as wholesale and retail as well as hospitality and catering, saw a narrower contraction in the first half than in the first quarter.