BEIJING, Jan. 16 -- China's retail sales value is expected to expand by around 12 percent in 2014 to nearly 27 trillion yuan (4.4 trillion U.S. dollars), Vice Commerce Minister Zhong Shan revealed on Friday.

This will make China the world's second largest retail market, Zhong said.

Notably, online retail sales, estimated to expand by 50 percent, continued to show robust growth last year.

China's retail sales rose 12 percent year on year to 23.66 trillion yuan in the first eleven months. Data for the whole year is expected next Tuesday.

To steer the economy onto a more sustainable track, the government has been at pains to switch from over-reliance on investment and exports to consumption.

In the first three quarters of this year, consumption overtook investment as the biggest driver of the economy and contributed 48.5 percent to economic growth, earlier official data showed.