China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced here Monday to revise up the GDP growth rates in the second quarter and first half of 2003.

The revised second quarter growth figure is 7.9 percent for 2003, up from the originally reported 6.7 percent. Meanwhile, the growth rate for the first half of 2003 was also revised up to 8.8 percent from 8.2 percent.

The NBS said in a statement that the upward revision of GDP growth was due to changes in the estimation of the service sector and other tertiary industries.

According to the statement, the NBS initially calculated the second quarter output of the tertiary industry on the basis of an emergency survey designed to find out the impact of the outbreak of SARS on the service sector in 2003.

As more data came in, however, the NBS soon found that the growth rate of the service industry was underestimated. It was actually minus 6.8 percent in the second quarter of 2003, not minus 14.8 percent, as previously reported.

In calculating the growth of domestic gross product (GDP) of the first half of 2004, the NBS had to revised the 2003 figure because latest statistics pointed to a higher growth rate than the original estimation, the statement said. The minus 14.8 percent figure, for example, was obviously below the real condition.

The NBS said the revision was conducted according to international practice. It will revise the GDP growth for the whole year of 2003 later this year.

After the revision, the first half-year growth of tertiary industry for 2003 was up from 4.1 percent to 6.1 percent, while the service sector growth was up from 0.4 percent to 6.5 percent.