Consumption contributes more to China's GDP growth

BEIJING - Consumption contributed more to China's economy last year, while investment growth declined.

Consumption contributed 50.2 percent to China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2014, 0.2 percentage points more than the previous year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.

Investment contributed 48.5 percent, down from 54.4 percent in 2013, and net exports contributed 1.3 percent to 2014 GDP growth, up from the negative 4.4 percent contribution rate the previous year.

China's economic growth over the past two decades relied heavily on capital investment and exports. To steer the economy onto a more sustainable track, the government has been trying to encourage more domestic consumption, rather than over relying on investment and exports.

GDP last year was 64.08 trillion yuan ($10.47 trillion), up from 58.97 trillion yuan in 2013.

Consumption amounted to 32.83 trillion yuan, up from 30.1 trillion in 2013.

GDP grew 7.4 percent last year, the weakest annual expansion in 24 years. The official growth target was set at around 7 percent for 2015 by the Chinese government in March at the annual session of the National People's Congress.