This photo taken on Aug 9, 2023 shows industry robots working at a production base of Foshan Electrical and Lighting Co Ltd in Foshan, South China's Guangdong province. [Xinhua/Liu Dawei]

BEIJING -- China saw a rapid rise in innovation capacity last year, with new growth drivers gathering momentum and injecting impetus for high-quality development, an index showed.

The China Innovation Index, a barometer of the country's innovation capability, climbed 5.9 percent compared to the previous year to hit 155.7 in 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The index has grown at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent since 2015, the base year, said the NBS.

Encompassing four sub-indices, the index measures innovation environment, input, output, and effects.

All sub-indices climbed in 2022, with the sub-index for innovation output rising 9.2 percent from a year earlier. A total of 798,000 invention patents were authorized in China in 2022, 2.2 times the number recorded in 2015, the NBS data revealed.

"The emerging economy, which is spearheaded by new industries and businesses, has grown into a major driver for economic transformation and upgrading, and for energizing the economy," said Li Yin, a statistician with the NBS.