BEIJING - China's cultural industry accelerated its expansion last year, helped by the rapid growth of information transmission services, official data showed Wednesday.

The sector's combined revenue rose 10.8 percent to 9.2 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion) in 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement.

The growth rate was higher than the 7.5 percent achieved in 2016 and 6.9 percent in 2015.

The NBS tracks some 55,000 companies across 10 cultural sectors -- six that offer cultural services and four involved in the manufacturing of cultural products.

Revenue from information transmission services increased the most, by 34.6 percent year-on-year, followed by cultural and artistic services, and recreation and entertainment services.

Manufacturing of cultural products, which accounted for more than one third of the sector's total revenue, posted a 11.4 percent growth in revenue.

The country's eastern regions contributed 74.7 percent to the overall cultural revenue in 2017, according to the NBS.