China's spending on research and development (R&D) hit a record high at 2.23 percent of its GDP in 2019, up by 0.09 percentage points from the previous year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Thursday.

China's total expenditure on R&D amounted to 2.214 trillion yuan (about 321.3 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 12.5 percent, or 246.57 billion yuan compared with that in 2018, according to a report jointly released by the NBS, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance.

The figure has seen double-digit growth for four consecutive years, with the growth pace of last year quickening by 0.7 percentage points from the previous year, said Deng Yongxu, an NBS statistician.

Investment in basic research stood at 133.56 billion yuan last year, accounting for six percent of the total spending, the data showed.