The industrial structure of China's light industry has continued to optimize and upgrade during the first half of this year, cctv.com reported on Wednesday.

Light industrial production has grown rapidly, and the consumer market has recovered steadily in the first six months. The improving and upgrading industrial structure gives strong support to the steady growth of the industrial economy.

The value-added of light industry above designated size increased 0.4 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year, maintaining growth for three consecutive months - and the figure increased 2.3 percent year-on-year in June.

Among the 92 light industrial products that the National Bureau of Statistics collected, 48 products realized an increase of 52.2 percent year-on-year in June.

From Jan to June, the retail sales of 11 categories of goods of the light industry reached 3.5 trillion yuan ($488 billion), an increase of 6.3 percent year-on-year, accounting for 15.4 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

The export market structure of the light industry saw balance during Jan-May, with the export to countries and regions related to the Belt and Road Initiative jumping 14.8 percent year-on-year, and the export to the ASEAN countries growing 12.6 percent year-on-year.

A new driving force has become an important support for the light industry to steady growth. In the first six months, the value-added of solar cells, scooters and household appliance manufacturing surged 23.3 percent, 10.7 percent and 8.4 percent year-on-year, respectively.