China has ranked first in terms of contribution to global economic growth since 2006, becoming the leading engine of world economic growth, an official report said Thursday.

In the past 70 years, China's proportion of major economic and social aggregate indicators in the world has further increased, its international status has been further enhanced, and its global influence has continued to grow, said a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The report shows that from 1961 to 1978, China's average annual contribution to global economic growth was 1.1 percent, but from 1979 to 2012, it rose to 15.9 percent, ranking second in the world.

From 2013 to 2018, however, the figure climbed to 28.1 percent, ranking first globally, the report said.

In 2018, the ratio of China's contribution to global economic growth was 27.5 percent, 24.4 percentage points higher than in 1978, the report said. 

Incremental economic strength

Over the past 70 years, China's economic strength has grown remarkably. 

In 1952, China's GDP was 30 billion U.S. dollars, while in 2018, its GDP reached 13.61 trillion U.S. dollars, an increase of 452.6 times. 

In 1978, China's GDP ranked 11th in the world, while in 2010, it overtook Japan to become the second-largest economy in the world, and has remained that position ever since.

In the past 70 years, China has opened its door wider to the outside world. The second-largest economy's foreign trade rose by 9.7 percent year on year to a historical high of 30.51 trillion yuan (about 4.6 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2018, more than 4,000 times the size of the 1.13 billion U.S. dollars in 1950, thus bringing the accumulated foreign investment in the 70 years to the tune of 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars.

In the past 70 years, China's high-quality development model has become increasingly prominent. In 1952, the proportion of agricultural added value in GDP was as high as 50.5 percent, while in 2018, it decreased to 7.2 percent, with the service industry contributing to half of the country's economy.

(With input from Xinhua)