BEIJING, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- During the past four decades of reform and opening up, China, while achieving economic accomplishments of its own, has also built closer ties and expanded win-win cooperation with the rest of the world.

The following are some facts and figures about the improvement of China's role in and contribution to the global economy over the past 40 years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

-- From 1979 to 2017, China's average economic growth rate was 9.5 percent, significantly higher than the 2.9-percent global average and that of the world's major economies. Under the backdrop of the supply-side structural reform, China's economy grew 6.9 percent in 2017 against the world's 3 percent.

-- China has emerged as the biggest driver of global economic growth. From 1979 to 2017, China accounted for 18.4 percent of global economic growth annually, second only to the United States. In 2017, China accounted for 27.8 percent of global economic growth, more than that of the United States and Japan combined.

-- China's foreign goods trade volume moved up from 29th worldwide in 1978 to the top place in 2013. In 2017, China's goods imports and exports surpassed 4 trillion U.S. dollars, accounting for 11.5 percent of the global sum, up from 0.8 percent in 1978. As the global economy faced downward pressures, China maintained second place regarding imports volume from 2012 to 2017, making a noticeable contribution to the global economic recovery.

-- China's service trade volume climbed from 34th worldwide in 1982 to second place in 2014. In 2017, service imports and exports amounted to almost 700 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 6.7 percent of the world's total.

-- China's outbound direct investment (ODI) rose from 28th globally in 1982 to second place in 2016. In 2017, China's ODI hit 124.6 billion U.S. dollars amid increasing uncertainties of the international environment.

-- Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China rose from 122nd worldwide in 1979 to second place in 2013 and saw an average annual growth rate of 46.1 percent from 1979 to 2017, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. In 2017, China's FDI stood at 131 billion U.S. dollars.

-- China has the world's largest group of outbound tourists. The number of outbound trips made by Chinese tourists rose from 5 million in 1995 to 135 million in 2016 with an annual growth rate of 17.6 percent. Outbound tourism expenditure grew from 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in 1995 to 261.1 billion dollars in 2016, the largest worldwide.

-- As the first developing country to pass the poverty reduction mark in Millennium Development Goals, China slashed its population living in poverty by 740 million from 1978 to 2017.