Domestic consumption surpassed investment to become the strongest driving force of the Chinese economy in 2014, indicating a new growth model has already started forming as the country enters a "new normal" development era, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

Total consumption accounted for 51.2 percent of gross domestic product growth last year, compared with 48.6 percent from investment. Net exports accounted for just 0.2 percent of the GDP growth, said the NBS report.

Xie Hongguang, the NBS deputy director, said: "It means that the consumption-driven growth model has started taking shape, and the economic structure has started improving."