BEIJING, Feb. 28 -- China has more than 12 million private companies in the country, which are helping boost economy, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC) said Friday.

By the end of 2013, 12.54 million private firms were registered in the country, an increase of 15.5 percent year on year, the ACFIC said in a statement.

Registered capital of the companies reached 39.3 trillion yuan (6.4 trillion U.S. dollars), marking a year-on-year rise of 26.4 percent, it said.

The federation said the number of registered individual businesses reached 44.36 million as of 2013, up 9.3 percent year on year and total registered capital amounted to 2.4 trillion yuan.

Private businesses accounted for over 60 percent of the total gross domestic product (GDP) in China last year, said the statement.

China's e-commerce transactions reached 9.9 trillion yuan and its online retail sales amounted 1.85 trillion yuan in 2013, up 21.3 percent, 42 percent respectively.