China's economy expanded 8.7 percent in 2009 from a year earlier, exceeding the government's annual growth target of 8 percent, according to the official data.

Gross domestic product (GDP) reached 33.54 trillion yuan (4.91 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2009, Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told a press conference Thursday.

China's economy rose 10.7 percent year on year in the fourth quarter. This compared with 6.2 percent growth in the first quarter, 7.9 percent in the second, and 9.1 percent in the third.

Zhuang Jian, senior economist of the Asian Development Bank, said the fourth quarter growth rate was higher than previous market expectations, with most economists expecting an increase of 10 percent year on year.

"The accelerating GDP growth in the fourth quarter was due to a low basis of the same period in 2008, when the quarterly GDP expanded 6.8 percent from a year earlier, also indicating that the country's economy is on a strong rebound," Zhuang said.

Zhu Baoliang, chief economist of the State Information Center, told Xinhua: "The GDP growth last year was far better than expected, which is a solid foundation for sustainable economic development in 2010."

According to the NBS, in 2009, the value-added of the primary sector topped 3.55 trillion yuan, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier; that of the industrial sector stood at 15.7 trillion yuan, up 9.5 percent year on year; and the tertiary sector, services, reported value-added totaling 14.29 trillion yuan, up 8.9 percent.