BEIJING - China's service sector growth continued to pick up in the first two months of 2017, official data showed Tuesday.

The new Index of Services Production grew 8.2 percent year on year in the Jan-Feb period, 0.1 percentage point faster than that in December 2016, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

This is the first time the NBS has rolled out a comprehensive index to evaluate service sector development, according to NBS spokesperson Sheng Laiyun.

The new index can reflect short-term changes in the service sector and can help policy-makers and enterprises observe industrial trends and make decisions accordingly, Sheng said.

China's economy is shifting to a growth model mainly driven by the service sector, which has for years accounted for over half of the country's total GDP.

Industries including information transmission, software, IT, transport and courier services showed strong growth in January and February, the index showed.

Business activities in the service sector remained expansionary in February, with railway transport, telecom, broadcasting and TV and the internet sectors posting strong performances, NBS data showed.