BEIJING, Jan. 27 -- Consumption of information products and services in China surged 18 percent in 2014 from a year earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said.

Information consumption topped 2.8 trillion yuan (458 billion U.S. dollars) in 2014, up 18 percent year on year, Mao Weiming, vice MIIT minister, told a press conference on Tuesday.

The communication industry has maintained stable growth and information consumption has played a more prominent role in driving economic growth, Mao said.

In 2014, e-commerce transactions expanded 20 percent year on year to hit 12 trillion yuan, while online retail sales grew 41 percent, ringing up transactions of 2.6 trillion yuan, Mao said.

In addition, 4G users topped 90 million by the end of December, almost a year after the issuance of 4G licenses to China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.

Information products and services refer to hardware and software concerned with spreading information.