The economy of the Chinese capital is expected to grow by 10 percent in 1999, some three percentage points higher than the national average.

Beijing's export volume hit 3.2 billion US dollars last year,up 13 percent over 1998, according to the Fifth Plenary Session ofthe Eighth Municipal Congress of the Communist Party of China, which met today.

Though foreign investment actually used grew by only one percent to 2.9 billion US dollars last year, the presence of a number of big name multinational companies gave a boost to the development of local high-tech industry, according to the meeting.

In 1999, the unemployment rate of the city was 0.62 percent, retail prices dropped by 1.2 percent, and local income increased by 7.6 percent.

In addition, more foreign visitors came to Beijing last year, bringing 2.5 billion US dollars to the city.