BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's new economic growth drivers index rose 12.5 percent in 2025, with the transformation and upgrading index and the innovation driven index together accounting for nearly two-thirds of the increase, official data showed Thursday.
The index reached 153, with 2022 set as the base year of 100, according to the Institute of Statistical Sciences of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). All four sub-indexes increased from a year earlier.
The transformation and upgrading index rose 22.7 percent, the fastest among the four, and contributed 34.1 percent to overall index growth. The innovation-driven index increased 12.9 percent and contributed another 31.4 percent, bringing their combined contribution to 65.5 percent.
That marked a shift from 2024, when the network economy was the largest contributor to index growth and transformation and upgrading accounted for 16.7 percent of the increase.
Lyu Haiqi, head of the NBS institute, said in an analysis accompanying the index release that China's new growth drivers continued to grow in strength in 2025, with innovation playing an increasingly prominent leading role and transformation and upgrading gathering pace.
He said the developments helped China make new progress in high-quality economic development.
On transformation and upgrading, Lyu noted that the value added of high-tech manufacturing rose 9.4 percent in 2025, 3.5 percentage points faster than that of major industrial enterprises as a whole. The share of the value added of high-tech manufacturing in the total value added of major industrial enterprises rose to 17.1 percent.
Lyu cited continued efforts to advance the digital transformation of manufacturing, the "AI Plus" initiative, technological upgrading and intelligent manufacturing, alongside the green transformation of key industries. He also pointed to faster growth in strategic emerging industries and continued development of future industries.
Exports of electric vehicles, photovoltaic products and lithium batteries -- often referred to as China's "new three" -- approached 1.3 trillion yuan (191.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 27.1 percent, he noted.
Lyu also pointed to increased innovation input. China's expenditure on research and development reached 3.9 trillion yuan in 2025, up 8.1 percent and equivalent to 2.8 percent of gross domestic product. Spending on basic research and the value of technology contracts both recorded double-digit growth.
The network economy index rose 10.8 percent. Lyu pointed to the continued expansion of digital infrastructure and the development of new forms of consumption and trade, including instant retail, livestreaming e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce.
The economic vitality index increased 4.8 percent. Lyu cited continued reform efforts, including measures to build a unified national market, a new version of the negative list for market access and efforts to advance market-oriented allocation of production factors.
The index measures developments in 2025. Separate data for 2026 showed high-tech manufacturing continuing to post faster value-added growth than major industrial enterprises as a whole.
In the first seven months, the value added of high-tech manufacturing rose 13.8 percent year on year, compared with a 5.3-percent increase in the total value added of major industrial enterprises, NBS data showed earlier this month. The NBS said new growth drivers witnessed robust development and the economic structure continued to improve.
Separate industrial profit data released Thursday showed profits in high-tech manufacturing growing faster than overall industrial profits. Profits of major industrial enterprises rose 17.6 percent year on year in the first seven months, while profits of high-tech manufacturers rose 50.1 percent.
