BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's private investment continued rising in 2017, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has showed.

Private investment grew 6 percent year on year, 2.8 percentage points higher than a year earlier, to 38.2 trillion yuan (6 trillion U.S. dollars) last year.

"The high growth rate indicated the central government's favorable policy in 2017 delivered positive results," said Zhao Peiya, an official with the NBS.

Fixed-asset investment grew 7.2 percent year on year to 63.2 trillion yuan, the NBS said.

China's economy ended 2017 with growth of 6.9 percent, higher than the 6.7 percent registered in 2016, the first acceleration in annual growth in seven years.