HONG KONG — In the seven years since China entered the World Trade Organization in November 2001, a rising tide of exports, combined with a torrent of investment, has lifted the country’s economy ever higher, while consumer spending has lagged.

But now, the Chinese economy relies increasingly on growth at home, as data released Thursday made clear. A decline in exports has become a serious drag on economic growth, while government spending has led domestic investments higher at a remarkable pace and consumer spending appears to have been fairly strong as well.

Some economists worry that China is actually becoming too reliant on investment spending and that the government’s economic stimulus program may be making this worse.

“For China’s nascent economic recovery to be sustainable beyond the short term, policy makers must take steps to ensure that consumption remains on a firm growth trajectory and that the investment boom does not exacerbate the economy’s structural imbalances,” the chairwoman of China equities at J.P. Morgan, Jing Ulrich, said in a research note.