New economy output accounts for 15.7% of China's GDP

BEIJING - The value-added output of new industries, new types of business and new business models accounted for 15.7 percent of China's GDP last year, up 0.4 percentage points from 2016, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

It was the first time the NBS officially released data on the value-added output of the new economy.

In current prices, new economic output grew 14.1 percent in 2017, outpacing the GDP growth in current prices by 2.9 percentage points, according to the NBS.

The output of new industries, business types, and models in the service sector accounted for 8.4 percent of the country's GDP last year, up 0.4 percentage points from 2016 and higher than that in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

New economic output in the service sector expanded 17 percent in current prices in 2017, NBS data showed.

New industries and business forms have become a greater driving force for the Chinese economy amid technology development, market upgrading and government efforts to boost mass entrepreneurship and innovation.