BEIJING - China's courier sector posted steady growth for the first ten months of the year thanks to continued efforts to boost consumption and services, the State Post Bureau (SPB) said on Monday.

Courier businesses' revenue was over 308 billion yuan (about $44.6 billion) in the first ten months of 2016, up 44.5 percent year on year, the bureau said.

A total of 24.1 billion deliveries were made during the same period, up 54.2 percent year on year, the bureau said.

According to the SPB data, 20.65 billion parcels were delivered in 2015, up 48 percent from 2014.

Courier services covered 70 percent of towns and villages by the end of 2015. The country has plans to extend this network farther, and improve technology, services and international connections by 2020, according to the SPB.

The target annual revenue of the courier sector will be 800 billion yuan by 2020, according to a policy document released by the State Council last October.