(Yicai) Jan. 17 -- Domestic demand contributed 111 percent to China’s economic growth last year, an increase of 25 percentage points on the previous 12 months, according to the head of the National Bureau of Statistics.

The contribution rate is calculated by dividing the increment of constant-price value added in each industry by the constant-price increment of gross domestic product in the current period, according to the NBS' website.

Retail sales of consumer goods tallied CNY47.1 trillion (USD6.63 trillion) in 2023, while fixed-asset investment stood at CNY50.3 trillion, Kang said. Commercial freight volume rose 8.2 percent, while commercial passenger traffic soared 67 percent, he added.

Industrial enterprises above the designated size had a capacity utilization ratio of 76 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, up 0.2 point from a year earlier, Kang noted. The product sales among these enterprises remained stable at over 97 percent. 

Domestic demand also drove imports, with the value of imported agricultural produce jumping 5 percent last year, consumer goods rising 1.2 percent, and energy products up 27 percent.

China had above-zero export growth despite negative factors such as lower external demand, Kang said. This was better than the world's major export-oriented economies, keeping the country's share of the international market generally stable, he added.

China exported CNY23.77 trillion of goods last year, a 0.6 percent annual gain, with a higher proportion of imports and exports involving general trade and private-owned firms, according to Kang. 

Exports of mechanical and electronic products rose 2.9 percent, while the export value of electric cars, solar batteries, and lithium-ion batteries, three new major economic driving forces, surged 30 percent to CNY1 trillion (USD140.7 billion). Trade with countries in the Belt and Road Initiative climbed 2.8 percent. 

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev