Consumption has grown into China’s largest power for growth, making up nearly 80 percent of the country’s GDP growth, according to a special session of the 2018 China Development Forum held this Monday.

China’s economy is now less dependent on capital input and foreign trade, the session said, predicting that the consumption market will further boost the country’s economic growth.

The role of consumption in China’s GDP growth has changed dramatically over the past seven to eight years, previously contributing less than 50 percent of China’s economic growth.

Mao Shengyong, spokesperson of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, once disclosed that internal demand was a decisive factor for China’s economic growth, and consumption played a major role in China’s internal demand.

In addition, the upgrading of China’s consumption market is also driving the country’s economic development.

Zong Qinghou, Chairman and CEO of the Hangzhou Wahaha Group, the leading beverage company in China, noted that between 300 to 400 million Chinese people are middle-class income earners who are relatively well-off. As such, this group are developing toward higher-level consumption, and in turn China’s consumption market has growing potential, Zong added.