BEIJING, June 17 -- China witnessed a spike in the number of new taxpaying market entities in May as the country's economy continues to recover.

A total of 1.52 million new market entities handling tax-related business were registered in May, an increase of 24.9 percent from the same period last year, data from the State Taxation Administration showed.

In May, newly registered companies numbered about 691,000, representing a rise of 27.1 percent year on year, while the number of new individual businesses stood at about 817,000, up 33.7 percent from a year ago.

In the first five months, the total number of new taxpaying market entities totaled nearly 6.44 million, up 15.5 percent year on year.

By the end of May, the number of taxpaying market entities stood at 86.92 million, up 7.5 percent year on year.