Southern Chinese Province
Trying To Increase Economic Growth
GUANGZHOU, August 5 (Xinhua) -- South China's Guangdong
Province plans to develop new measures to encourage consumer spending.
Some existing policies that hinder consumer spending will be taken off the books,
according to a local official who says that the province will try to increase consumer
spending on housing, tourism, and education.
The province had 13.4 percent growth in retail sales of consumer goods from January
to June and expects a rise of 11.5 percent for the year. The new measures are expected to
help offset the negative impact of falling exports.
Guangdong only exported 32. 26 billion U.S. dollars worth of goods in the first six
months, a drop of 12.2 percent from last year.
But, the province still had a GDP of 367.6 billion yuan from January to June, up
9.6 percent. The growth is largely attributed to growing domestic demand.
Huang Weihong, director of the Provincial Development Planning Commission, says
that Guangdong's fixed assets investment will go up around 10 percent this year. A total
of 104.5 billion yuan was spent on fixed assets in the first six months, a 21.5 percent
increase over the same period last year. |