Shoppers browse through an IKEA store in Shanghai. According to experts, consumer spending in the United States has been as much as 70 percent of the economy, compared with 45.9 percent in China in the first three quarters. Provided to China Daily

Experts say still significant space for increase in domestic consumption

Consumer spending contributed 45.9 percent of the nation's economic growth in the first three quarters of 2013, falling short of becoming a major driver for GDP expansion, the spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday.

Investment generated 55.8 percent of the growth, which stood at 7.8 percent, Sheng Laiyun told a news conference in Beijing.

Retail sales increased 12.9 percent year-on-year to 16.88 trillion yuan ($2.75 trillion), the NBS said.

Bullish conditions in the property market, where analysts have said that new sales records could be set this year, drove consumption in several other sectors, such as home appliances, furniture, construction and interior decoration materials.

Figures from the Ministry of Commerce showed that in the first nine months, sales of home appliances, furniture and construction materials grew 10.4 percent, 6.5 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively.

Online shopping remained vibrant in the first three quarters, and retail spending via the Web is estimated at 1.3 trillion yuan, equivalent to the full-year figure for 2012.

Experts said that there is still huge room for China's consumer spending to grow.

Liu Shengjun, executive deputy director of the China Europe International Business School's Lujiazui Institute of International Finance, said that compared with international standards, China's economy is still more investment-driven.