China's Industrial Production AcceleratesChina's industrial output grew by 11.2 percent for the first half of the year, the highest half-year growth rate over the past three years.Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that China's value added industrial output totaled 1.0996 trillion yuan (132.5 billion US dollars) in the January-June period, 11.2 percent more than a year earlier. The growth rate was 1.8 percentage points higher than in the first half of 1999. Monthly value added industrial output reached 209.2 billion yuan in June, 12.2 percent more than the same month of last year. According to NBS, the industrial sector has witnessed signs of rising sales and diminishing stockpiles. For the first half of the year, sales-output ratio of industrial products rose to 96.8 percent, 1.15 percentage points higher than a year earlier. In June, the ratio climbed to 97.83 percent. Stockpiles at state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and large and medium-sized companies began to drop due to improving market demand and control of supply in some industries. NBS said SOEs, exports and hi-tech products helped boost industrial output by 4.2 percentage points, 2.9 percentage points and 1.7 percentage points, respectively. In the first half-year, SOEs and state-controlled firms in the industrial sector registered a total value added output of 653.8 billion yuan, 9.8 percent more than in the same period of last year. The growth rate was 2.2 percentage points higher than in the first half of 1999. In the same period, exports of industrial products totaled 628. 5 billion yuan, up 27.2 percent over the same period of last year. The growth rate was 21.5 percentage points higher than in the first half of 1999. In the meantime, output of information and telecommunication products such as carrier wave equipment, optical communication equipment, program-controlled telephone switches, personal computers and integrate circuits saw increases between 22.4 percent and 90.9 percent. Output of handsets of cellular phones increased by 1.4 times. NBS figures show that the Chinese government's efforts to overhaul the coal, metallurgical and sugar industries have begun to work. In the January-May period, the coal industry reduced losses by 440 million yuan; the metallurgical industry's profit was 6.8 times that in the same period of last year; the sugar industry reduced sugar output by 23.8 percent. |
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