BEIJING, Jan. 19 -- Investment in the Chinese economy continued to ebb amid government efforts to destock and cut overcapacity, while fresh drivers like consumption and the service sector become more robust.

The annual growth of China's urban fixed-asset investment, once a key driver of the economy, continued to cool in 2015 to 10 percent year on year, down from 15.7 percent in 2014, official data showed on Tuesday.

This is the latest step in continued deceleration of growth for fixed-asset investment, money used to purchase and build factories, machines, property and other fixed facilities.

Fixed-asset investment in the agricultural sector jumped the fastest, up 31.8 percent year on year, followed by 10.6 percent growth for the service sector and 8 percent for the industrial sector.

The figures are part of economic data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which showed annual growth of the world's second largest economy slowed to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 and 6.9 percent for the whole year.

Investment, which used to be a main driver of the Chinese economy, has slowed and is now seen as a drag on the overall economic growth.

Investment in the property sector slowed to a larger extent, with its annual growth cooling to 1 percent in 2015, a sharp decrease from the 10.5-percent growth in 2014, official data showed.

Investment in residential housing, which accounts for about two-thirds of the total property investment, edged up 0.4 percent from a year earlier, compared with a growth of 0.7 percent in the first 11 months.

New housing construction dropped 14 percent year on year in the year, with new residential housing construction declining 14.6 percent.

As old growth drivers slow, consumption has risen to fill take up the slack.

Retail sales of consumer goods, a key indicator of consumption, performed well thanks to pro-consumption policies, jumping 11.1 percent year on year to 2.86 trillion yuan (436 billion U.S. dollars).

Consumption contributed 66.4 percent to the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, up 15.4 percentage points from 2014, NBS data showed.

The rising ratio represents concrete progress in creating a more consumption and service driven economy in order to sustain growth.

The service sector contributed 50.5 percent to the economy in 2015, up from 48.1 percent in 2014, official data showed. It is the first time the service sector has exceeded 50 percent, indicating China's economic restructuring has made progress, according to the NBS.