China invested more in its service sector in the first nine months of this year in a bid to speed up economic growth and improve the people's living conditions, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Investment in real estate, public and consulting services from January to September grew 20.4 percent to 316.75 billion yuan ( about 38 billion US dollars).

At the same time, 26.79 billion yuan (about 3.2 billion US dollars was channeled into commerce and food services, material supply, marketing and storage, edging up 0.2 percent on an annual basis.

China has also significantly increased input in the primary industry during the period, with investment amounting to 45.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 53.2 percent.

The primary industry includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries and water conservancy.

In the construction sector, total investment hit 10.1 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion US dollars), 24.3 percent more than that of the same 1998 period.

China has taken measures to step up infrastructure construction in a bid to stimulate the domestic market in the wake of the Asian financial crisis.