Guangdong Reports Steady Economic GrowthGuangdong, China's forerunner of the reform and opening-up drive, reported a steady economic growth in the first two months of the year.Information from Guangdong Provincial Statistics Bureau said that the province scored 77.53 billion yuan (about US$9.34 billion) in retail sales of consumer commodities from January to February, up 11.2 percent from the same period last year. In the first two months, the province invested 19.838 billion yuan (about US$2.39 billion) in fixed assets regarding capital construction, technological upgrading and real estate, up 1.1 percent. During the period, the province accomplished 44.835 billion yuan (about US$5.4 billion) in industrial added value, up 7 percent, but the rate of production to marketing of manufactured goods was 95.06 percent, down by 0.86 percentage points. The inflow of overseas investment into this southern Chinese province has kept momentum since the beginning of the year. In the two months, the actual inflow of overseas capital into Guangdong totaled US$1.545 billion, up 10 percent. The province also did US$23.3 billion worth of foreign trade from January to February, up 5 percent, of which, export value stood at US$12.32 billion, down by 1.2 percent. An expert with the provincial statistics bureau suggested that Guangdong should intensify the implementation of the multi- polarized policy in export to offset the negative impact on the province's export from a slowdown in world economic growth, especially in the United States, and introduce effective measures to spur domestic demand by encouraging investment and spending to speed up the overall rise in the province's economy. |
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