Product quality saw an overall improvement last year, especially safety-sensitive items, according to China's quality watchdog on Wednesday.

Quality supervision and inspection authorities across the country sampled 20,355 products made by 18,791 enterprises last year, and the results found 89.8 percent of them had improved in quality, an increase of 2.3 percentage points over the previous year, Wei Chuanzhong, deputy chief of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said at a national videoconference.

The quality of 13 key types of products that bear key safety concerns improved greatly with the passing ratio increasing 4.6 percentage points on average, he said.

In addition, the administration rejected applications for production permits from 1,973 enterprises last year, and punished 1,224 companies for unlicensed production.

Despite progress, authorities will face tougher challenges, as enterprises tend to let quality slide in as market competition intensifies, Wei said.