China’s three drivers of growth — consumption, exports and investment — have represented a stronger driving force in terms of powering the economy over the first three quarters of this year, said Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng on Oct 26.

Gao made the remarks on China’s economic growth at a press briefing in Beijing, referring to consumption, exports and investment as a “troika” of growth.

Consumption continues to be the primary driving force of the country’s economic growth, after vigorously boosting the modernization of circulation and boosting the development of a synergy between e-commerce and physical businesses, noted Gao.

China’s total retail sales of consumer goods reached 26.3 trillion yuan ($4 trillion) in the first three quarters, up 10.4 percent from the same period last year. Final consumption expenditure contributed 64.5 percent to economic growth, 2.8 percentage points higher than last year.

In terms of foreign trade, China had a trade volume of 20.29 trillion yuan ($3.08 trillion) in the first three quarters, an increase of 16.6 percent year on year.

The volume of the country’s service trade from January to August reached 3.06 trillion yuan ($461.3 billion), an uptick of 9.8 percent year-on-year. Growth in foreign trade surpassed economic growth in the same period, indicating that the contribution of exports to economic growth has been further enhanced.

Regarding investment, China has created a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment while expanding its opening up policy in a bid to absorb more foreign capital.

The country’s actual use of foreign capital amounted to 618.6 billion yuan ($93.2 billion) in the first three quarters, up 1.6 percent year-on-year. Foreign capital going into the high-tech manufacturing industry and high-tech service industry increased by 27.5 percent and 24 percent respectively, compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, China has effectively curbed irrational foreign investment and guided domestic enterprises to focus on investing in the real economy, with the aim of accelerating transformation and upgrading in domestic industries, Gao stressed.