Consumer spending in China is expected to nearly double by 2015 in the retail sector, according to a report released Wednesday by the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS).

Retail consumer spending is expected to reach 27.4 trillion yuan ($4.07 trillion) in 2015, which is 1.7 times the level of consumer spending reported in 2010, chinanews.com reported.

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China has kept a rapid growth in consumptions for many years. From 2006 to 2010, it attained the average growth rate of 18.1 percent annually, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Consumer spending as a proportion of GDP has declined from 66.4 percent to 49.2 percent in the last 30 years. "Consumption is not the engine of economic growth yet," the report stated.

The report also said that investment-driven economic growth is vulnerable, especially in the wake of the recent global financial crisis. And with the transformation of economic development models, the domestic consumer market will be the key to economic growth in China.