China's Economy Growing SteadilyChina's economy has been steadily growing this year and its growth rate is expected to hit 7.5 percent, reversing the downward trend of the past several years.The performance has resulted from the state's active fiscal measures and the steady monetary policies, an official from the State Economic and Trade Commission wrote in the latest issue of the news weekly Outlook. Statistics show that in the first quarter of the year, the economy grew at a rate of 8.1 percent, which was 1.3 percentage points higher compared with the previous quarter. It is predicted that the growth rate for the first half of the year will reach about eight percent, up 0.4 percent over that of the same period of last year, and up 1.3 percent over that of the second half of last year. Major economic indices suggest that the economy has embarked on the road of higher growth. For the first five months of the year, the country's fixed capital investment was up 9.5 percent to 523.3 billion yuan. Retail sales witnessed noticeable growth, up 10.4 percent to 1, 360 billion yuan in the first five months. Foreign trade grew 36.1 percent to 174.1 US dollars, raking in a surplus of 10.5 billion dollars. The country's industrial production in the first five months this year was 11 percent higher than that in same period last year. The state-owned enterprises also recorded a remarkable improvement, with profits up 310 percent over the same period of last year. Despite the upward movement so far this year, the economy is still facing some problems, such as insufficient domestic demand, the article said. China's imminent entry into the World Trade Organization and other undecided factors may also hinder the economic recovery, it said. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |