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Press briefing on China's Q1 economic performance

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Speaker:
Sheng Laiyun, spokesperson and director-general of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)

Chairperson:
Hu Kaihong, vice director-general of the Press Bureau, State Council Information Office

Date:
April 16, 2014

Hu Kaihong:

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the press conference organized by the State Council Information Office. We are honored to have Sheng Laiyun, spokesperson and director-general of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), here today to introduce to you the performance of China's national economy during the first quarter of 2014. Sheng will also take questions from the attending press. Now let us give the floor to Sheng for a brief introduction.

Sheng Laiyun:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! I am very glad to meet you again. As part of protocol, let me introduce to you the major index data of the Chinese economy during the first quarter (Q1) of the year, before I answer your questions.

The economy in the first quarter is in good shape.

Since the beginning of this year, amid a complicated situation both at home and abroad, the Communist Party of China (CPC) central authorities and the State Council have both taken a resolute stance, while taking proactive measures. They focused on reform, innovation, structural transformation and upgrade, as well as on improving the people's livelihood. As a result, the national economy had a good start and performed well on average.

The initial statistics show that China's gross domestic product (GDP) for Q1 reached 12.8213 trillion yuan, representing a 7.4 percent increase year-on-year based on comparable prices. Here is the drilldown: the primary industry gained 777.6 billion yuan, up by 3.5 percent year-on-year; the secondary industry expanded by 5.7587 trillion yuan, up 7.3 percent year-on-year; and the tertiary industry grew by 6.285 trillion yuan, up by 7.8 percent compared with the same period last year.

Compared with Q4 of last year, China's GDP for Q1 went up by 1.4 percent.

1. Agricultural production remains stable

A survey on the planting intentions completed by more than 110,000 rural households has shown that the nationwide acreage intention for crops increases by 0.15 percent in 2014; that for wheat goes down by 0.56 percent; that for corn ups 1.75 percent; and that for cotton declines by 6.77 percent. The main planting areas have reported normal seedling.

In Q1, meat products, including pork, beef, lamb, and poultry, reached 23.47 million tons, up by 2 percent year-on-year, among which the pork production reached 16.07 million tons, up by 3.5 percent.