Xie Fuzhan, Director of National Bureau of Statistics, announced at the press conference held in the State Council Information Office on January 25, 2007 that China's national economy in 2006 maintained steady growth. According to the preliminary accounting, in 2006, China's GDP hit 20.94 trillion yuan, which is a growth of 10.7 percent over the previous year calculated by the comparable price, and a jump of 0.3 percentage point in terms of the growth rate. Of the increased amount, the primary industry registered a growth rate of 5 percent, the secondary industry 12.5 percent and the tertiary industry 10.3 percent. The growth rate of the GDP in the four quarters of 2006 was 10.4 percent, 11.5 percent, 10.6 percent and 10.4 percent respectively.

The 2006 indexes for the national economy are as follows:

Agricultural production was developing at a stable pace, seeing another grain harvest. The grain yield in 2006 exceeded 490 million tons and the cotton yield reached 6.73 million tons, up by 17.8 percent over the previous year. The total production of meat and poultry eggs was predicted to be 80 million tons and 29.5 million tons, up by 4.5 percent and 3.0 percent respectively over the previous year.

The industrial production was developing rapidly, with higher efficiency. The total added value of industry in 2006 increased by 12.5 percent. Above-scale industrial enterprises obtained a profit of nearly 1.88 trillion yuan, up by 31 percent.

While fixed assets investment grew quite fast, the growth rate saw a fall. Throughout the year, the total fixed assets investment topped 10.99 trillion yuan, an increase of 24 percent over the previous year, with the growth rate falling by 2 percentage points.

The domestic consumer market was quite prosperous, with the total retail sales of consumer goods hitting over 7.64 trillion yuan, up by 13.7 percent over the previous year and the growth rate saw a jump of 0.8 percentage point.

Foreign trade witnessed rapid growth, with a slight increase in foreign direct investment. The year's total import and export volume reached US$1.76 trillion, up by 23. 8 percent over the previous year, which is a 0.6 percentage point jump in the growth rate. Of the total volume, the export volume reached US$969.1 billion, up by 27.2 percent over the previous year while the import volume was US$791.6 billion, up by 20 percent. As a result, the year's trade surplus amounted to US$177.5 billion, an increase of US$75.5 billion over the previous year. Foreign direct investment in actual use amounted to US$63 billion, up by 4.5 percent compared with the year before. At the end of 2006, China's foreign exchange reserve hit US$1.07 trillion, a growth of US$247.3 billion compared with the end of 2005.

In 2006, the overall price was kept at a stable level while the housing price rose rapidly. The consumer price index throughout the year rose by 1.5 percent, with a drop of 0.3 percentage point compared with that of 2005 in terms of the growth rate. The country's 70 large and medium-sized cities saw the housing sales price jumped by 5.5 percent, with the growth rate falling by 2.1 percentage points over the previous year.

Urban and rural residents' income rose sharply and there was a large increase of employment opportunities. In the year 2006, disposable income for urban residents reached 11,759 yuan, up by 12.1 percent over the previous year. Taking into account the price increase, the actual growth rate of income was 10.4 percent, up by 0.8 percentage points. The per-capita net income for rural residents in 2006 was 3,587 yuan, up by 10.2 percent year on year. With the price factor excluded, the actual growth rate was 7.4 percent, up by 1.2 percentage point. In 2006, 11.84 million urban residents were employed and the registered unemployment rate at the end of 2006 was 4.1 percent, down by 0.1 percent compared with the end of 2005.

(China.org.cn)