Contribution to the global economy rises

As the Chinese economy has expanded rapidly in the past five years, the country's contribution to the global economy has also increased at a fast pace.

On Wednesday, the National Bureau of Statistics said China accounted for about 15 percent of the global economy last year, 3 percentage points higher than in 2012.

The country contributed about 30 percent of global economic growth last year, and was a vital engine driving the world's economic recovery, according to Sheng Laiyun, the bureau's spokesman.

Last year, the World Bank said that China contributed an average of 31.6 percent to global economic growth between 2013 and 2016, surpassing the combined contributions of the United States, the eurozone and Japan.

The World Economic Outlook, released by the International Monetary Fund in January, raised the estimate of China's economic growth this year to 6.6 percent - 0.1 percentage points higher than its projection in October.

Last year, the IMF raised its projected growth rate for the Chinese economy four times, illustrating the confidence the international community has in the world's second-largest economy, which has benefited from recovering external demand and a faster internal economic transformation to become a more innovation-driven, high-end economy.

Experts are optimistic about China's potential. Huang Qunhui, an industrial economics researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the country maintains the advantages of a large population, well-educated human resources and a well-developed national economic system.

China will maintain mid-to high-speed growth in the next few years and will continue to make a significant contribution to the global economy, he added.