BEIJING, June 15 -- China's service sector witnessed a robust recovery momentum in May, as economic activities are normalizing, an official said on Thursday.

The index gauging the country's service industry output rose 11.7 percent year on year in May, said Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics.

Contact-based service sector witnessed fast recovery, with the sub-index for accommodation and catering surging by 39.5 percent year on year, said Fu.

The sub-index tracking the output of the leasing and business services climbed 14 percent year on year, while that for information transmission, software, and IT services expanded 12.9 percent.

In the first five months, the index increased by 9.1 percent year on year, and the growth rate was 0.7 percentage points higher form that in the January-April period.