China's tertiary, or services sector now makes up 40.7 percent of the economy according to an announcement from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the main findings of its first nationwide economic survey here Tuesday.

It was previously believed to constitute 31.9 percent.

China's economic structure is better than thought and its GDP is growing, said industry observers.

China on Tuesday revised the size of its economy by 16.8 percent to 15.99 trillion yuan (1.93 trillion US dollars). According to NBS top statistician Li Deshui, over 90 percent of the newly-added 2.3 trillion yuan comes from better data about the services sector.

In the sectors of transport, storage, post and telecommunications, wholesale and retail trade, catering and real estate, where private and individual ownership have taken a large share and long been under-reported, the value added is about 1.5 trillion yuan larger than previously believed.

Tertiary industries usually doesn't make products or consume much energy.

However, Jiang Xiaojuan, an expert with the research institute of the State Council, said that 40.7 percent is still low compared with world average.

Even in low-income countries, the share of the services sector stands at 45 percent on average.

China's growth has been largely hinges on industrial development. While it's revised GDP accounted for 4.4 percent of the world total last year, China's crude oil and coal consumption occupied 7.4 percent and 31 percent of the world total, respectively.

Jiang said China should further develop its services sector in the coming five years, a measure that will create more jobs.

Source: Xinhua