China's GDP Grows 11.1% in First Half of 2010

By Tony Liu
Published: 2010-07-15

China's gross domestic product (GDP) registered a year-on-year increase of 11.1 percent reaching 17.28 trillion yuan (2.55 trillion US dollars) in the first half of 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.

The growth rate was 3.7 percentage points higher than the same period last year, Sheng Laiyun, the NBS spokesman announced at a press conference.

China's GDP grew 10.3 percent in the second quarter, lower than its first quarter growth of 11.9 percent.

Earlier, the government had set its annual economic growth target at around 8 percent for 2010.

At the conference, Sheng also released the statistics on the effects of inflation measures.

China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 2.9 percent in June from a year earlier, 0.2 percentage points lower than May's CPI.

The inflation rate stood at 2.6 percent in the first half of the year, which was below the 3 percent ceiling target for the year set by the government in early March.

The producer price index (PPI), another measure of inflation at the wholesale level, registered a year-on-year increase of 6 percent in the first half of this year.

The NBS also reported on the country's industrial output, investment, consumption and export situation.

China's industrial value-added output was up 17.6 percent in the first half of the year from a year earlier, the NBS said.

The increase was 10.6 percentage points higher than that of the same period last year.

In addition, the profits of large-scale industrial enterprises -- referring to enterprises with annual sales revenue exceeding five million yuan (about 735,294 US dollars) each -- expanded 81.6 percent from a year earlier to reach 1.54 trillion yuan in the first five months of the year.

China's fixed-asset investment in the first six months rose 25 percent from a year earlier to reach 11.41 trillion yuan (1.67 trillion US dollars).

Urban fixed-asset investment rose to 9.80 trillion yuan in the first six months, up 25.5 percent from a year earlier, while rural fixed-asset investment expanded to 1.61 trillion yuan in the first six months, up 22.1 percent from a year earlier.

Property investment grew 38.1 percent to 1.97 trillion yuan in the first six months, up 38.1 percent from a year earlier, the NBS said.

China's retail sales maintained a rapid growth in the first half of this year.

Retail sales grew 18.2 percent to 7.26 trillion yuan (1.06 trillion US dollars) in the first half of the year from a year earlier.

The economy also improved in terms of sales; China's auto sales in the first half of the year rose 37.1 percent from a year earlier, furniture sales were up 38.5 percent and home appliance sales climbed 28.8 percent.

China's exports have recovered at a faster pace. The NBS said exports in the first six months grew 35.2 percent to 649.8 billion US dollars.

 

The Press Conference (Chinese)