China's Service Sector Grows Steadily

Following are the facts and figures about the service sector in China in the Ninth Five-year Plan period (1996-2000), provided by the State Development Planning Commission.

The added value of China's service sector increased from 2042.75 billion yuan to 2703.59 billion yuan, an annual average rise of 8.18 percent from 1996 to 1999.

The average annual proportion of the sector's added value to the added gross domestic product (GDP) reached 46.6 percent, up 17.5 percentage points from the Eighth Five-year Plan period (1991-1995).

The service sector accounted for 32.9 percent of the GDP in 1999, up from 1996's 30.1 percent.

Employees in the service sector increased by 10.86 million from 1996 to 1999, 62.6 percent of the country's newly added employed population.

Some 189.87 million people worked in the service sector by 1999, accounting for 26.9 percent of the total employed population of 705.86 million, a rise of 2.1 percentage points over 1996.



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