Economic Growth Narrows Gap Between East and West China

There were marked improvement in a number of economic indexes of central and west China in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year, according to an official from the State Economic and Trade Commission.

The narrowing economic gap between east and west is shown in the followingfour aspects:

1. GDP growth. The top four GDP growth regions are Beijing, Tianjin, Ningxia and Zhejiang, and those lagged behind are Yunnan, Shanxi, Anhui, and Jiangxi. In eastern, central and western (excluding Guizhou) regions, GDP rose 10.2 percent, 8.4 percent and 8.3 percent respectively, according to statistics reported to the higher level by local authorities. The figure for eastern regions was 1.8 percentage points and 1.9 percentage points higher than that of central and western regions respectively, the GDP growth gaps between western and eastern, and western and central reduced by 0.8 percentage point and 0.9 percentage point respectively.

2. Total industrial output value, economic returns and production-sales ratio. Increase in The economic returns for central industries and in production-sales ratio for western industries were most noticeable. The total industrial output value for the eastern, central and western regions rose 17.7 percent, 12.6 percent and 11.7 percent respectively, with that of the western regions being 6 percentage points and 0.9 percentage point lower than that of the eastern and central regions respectively. The composite index numbers for industrial economic returns were 111.8, 102.9, 81.4 for the eastern, central and western; the production-sales ratios were 95.5 percent, 97 percent and 96.5 percent. Compared with the same period last year, the gap between western and eastern, and western and central in industrial output value diminished 1.3 percentage points and 2.7 percentage points respectively; the composite index numbers for central industrial economic benefits grew by 25.9 percentage points and the figure stood at 14.6 percentage points for the eastern and 18 percentage points for the western. The production-marketing ratios grew by 1 percentage point, 1.8 percentage points and 2.1 percentage points for the three regions respectively.

3. Greatest commodity consumption growth in western regions. The total volume of retail sales of social consumer goods increased 10.6 percent, with the growth rate standing at 1.8 percentage points over previous year. The retail volumes for central and western regions are lower than the national average, increasing 9.4 percent and 9.3 percent respectively, with the growth rates being 1.9 percentage points and 2.3 percentage points.

4. Highest growth rate in fixed investment in central regions and fastest growth in planned investment for newly started projects in western regions. With respect to the amount of investment made in State-owned and other economic sectors, eastern regions saw an increase of 11 percent; central regions 19.8 percent; and western regions 13.8 percent, their respective decreases being 1.2 percentage points, 3.2 percentage points and 9.5 percentage points. The central regions saw rapidest growth in investments in technical upgrading and capital construction, increasing by 17.7 percent and 32.8 percent respectively. Investment for eastern capital construction only increased 0.07 percent, and the figure for the western was 8.1 percent. Planned investment in newly started projects in the eastern was up 27.6 percent, compared with last year's figure, down by 6 percent. The figures for the central and western were 16.6 percent and 76.1 percent, an increase of 3.8 percentage points and 60.9 percentage points over the same period of the previous year.

Although the western region economy has presented a trend of full-speed development, judged from the overall situation, however, the eastern economy remains a main driving force for the national economy, the official said.



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