Apr 15, 2013
Translated by Pang Lei

China's gross domestic product (GDP) registered a year-on-year increase of 7.7 percent reaching 11.9 trillion yuan (approximately 1.9 trillion US dollars) over the first three months of 2013, according to Sheng Laiyun, the spokesman for the NBS, who read the bureau's report on the economic figures for the first quarter at an official press conference in Beijing.

The growth rate was 0.2 percentage points lower than that registered in the final quarter of last year and 0.4 percentage points lower than the 8.1 percent growth measured in the first three months of 2012.

The GDP growth figure for the first quarter also came in below the forecasts of many analysts, with Reuters publishing a consensus forecast of 8.0 percent.

Earlier this year, the government had set its annual economic growth target at around 7.5 percent for 2013.

The NBS also revealed data on the country's industrial output, income, investment, consumption and trade earlier today.

In the first quarter of 2013, urban households earned an average disposable income of 7,427 yuan, a nominal increase of 9.3 percent over the same period last year or 6.7 percent when you take prices into account.

The average per capita cash income of rural households was 2,871 yuan over the first three months of the year, a nominal growth of 12.2 percent on the same period last year, but only 9.3 percent once you take inflation into account.

China's industrial value-added output was up 9.5 percent in the first quarter, when compared to the first three months of last year, a 2.1 percentage point decrease on the pace of growth during the first three months of 2012, the NBS said. The profits of large-scale industrial enterprises expanded 17.2 percent over the same period last year to reach 709 billion yuan in the first two months of the year.

China's urban fixed-asset investment rose 20.9 percent (or 20.7 percent after accounting for inflation) from a year earlier to reach 5.81 trillion yuan (approximately 940 billion US dollars) in the first quarter of 2013, which was about the same pace of growth registered in the first three months of 2012.
 
Investment in real estate climbed 20.2 percent over the first three months of the year (or 19.6 percent if price factors are taken into account), reaching a total of 1.31 trillion yuan.

During the press conference, in response to a question from the Financial Times, Sheng Laiyun revealed that of the 7.7 increase in GDP over the first three months of the year, 4.3 percentage points came from final consumption.

Last week, China's statistics bureau also released updated numbers for the country's consumer price index (CPI). China's CPI rose 2.1 percent in March from a year earlier, a substantial decrease on the pace of growth registered in February, when the index rose by 3.2 percent. Over the first three months of 2013, the CPI rose by 2.4 percent, down 1.4 percentage points from the 3.8 percent rise in CPI over the first quarter of 2012.

Links and Sources
National Bureau of Statistics: Overall Economic Development was Stable in the First Quarter of 2013
Economic Observer Online: China\'s CPI Up 2.1% in March
Economic Observer Online: China\'s GDP Up 8.1% in First Quarter (2012)
Economic Observer Online: China\'s GDP Grew 9.7% in the First Quarter (2011)
NBS: 国家统计局新闻发言人就一季度国民经济运行情况答记者问