China's GDP grows 10.7 percent in 2006

A preliminary estimate by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Thursday indicates that China's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 20.94 trillion yuan (2.7 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2006, up 10.7 percent year on year.

The government's macro-control measures prevented the economy from overheating, said NBS commissioner Xie Fuzhan at a press conference.

Growth was 0.3 percentage points higher than in 2005. China recently revised its 2005 GDP growth to 10.4 percent, higher than the original 9.9 percent.

Figures show the Chinese economy continued to be driven by hefty investment and soaring exports.

China's fixed asset investment totaled 10.99 trillion yuan in 2006, up 24 percent year on year. Despite rigorous government controls, investment in property development still reached 1.94 trillion yuan, up 22 percent, or 0.9 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Housing prices in the country's 70 medium-sized and large cities went up by 5.5 percent year on year, outrunning the consumer price index (CPI), a major inflation index, which rose by 1.5 percent in 2006.

Exports rose 27 percent from the previous year to 969 billion dollars, while imports were up 20 percent to 792 billion dollars. The trade surplus stood at a stunning 177.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2006.

Consumer spending is playing an increasing role in China's economy.

China's retail sales rose 13.7 percent to 7.6 trillion yuan (980 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006. The growth rate was 0.8 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Sales in the communications sector grew 22 percent, oil and oil products were up 36 percent, and automobiles up 26 percent.

Substantial personal income gains boosted social consumption.

Both urban and rural residents in China saw their per capita disposable income record double-digit growth in 2006, faster than the previous year, Xie said.

Urban residents in China earned 11,759 yuan in per-capita disposable income last year, up 12 percent from a year earlier.

Last year, rural residents in China saw their per-capita income increase by 10 percent to 3,587 yuan.

The urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent at the end of 2006, 0.1 percentage points down on the end of 2005.

China's primary, secondary and tertiary sectors posted a respective 2.47 trillion, 10.20 trillion and 8.27 trillion yuan in added value, with the secondary sector, including industry, manufacturing and mining, growing at the fastest pace -- 12.5 percent -- last year, according to Xie.

China's GDP growth was 10.4 percent, 11.5 percent, 10.6 percent and 10.4 percent from the first to the fourth quarter of 2006.

Source: Xinhua