China's economy grew by 10.2 percent last year, instead of the previously announced 9.9 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced yesterday, highlighting a difference in monetary terms amounting to nearly US$10 billion.

 

The bureau revised the 2005 gross domestic product from 18.2321 trillion yuan (US$2.279 trillion), as announced in January, to 18.3085 trillion yuan (US$2.289 trillion).

 

The difference was contributed mainly by the manufacturing, mining and agriculture sectors, while growth in the services, or tertiary, industry was lower than previously estimated.

 

The service industry totaled some 7.339 trillion yuan (US$917.37 billion) in NBS' January report, but was subsequently revised to 7.296 trillion yuan (US$912 billion).

 

This accounted for nearly 39.9 percent of the economy, instead of the 40 percent indicated by the January data.

 

In a similar revision of growth in 2004, announced at the end of last year, GDP was 16.8 percent higher than earlier estimates, raking in an estimated US$2 trillion.

 

But the difference then was that services made up a whopping 93 percent of the expanded growth.

 

The nation relies on the services industry to create jobs, especially in urban areas where the government wants to keep unemployment below 4.5 percent.

 

Last year, the economy appeared more dependent on manufacturing, which made up 47.5 percent of GDP with farming and affiliated operations contributing 12.6 percent.

 

According to NBS' January data, value-added output of the primary industry in 2005, which combines agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries, was 2.2718 trillion yuan (US$284 billion). The figure has been revised to 2.307 trillion yuan (US$288 billion).

 

The value-added output of the secondary industry, which includes mining, manufacturing, generation and supply of electricity, gas and water, and construction, was 8.6208 trillion yuan (US$1.078 trillion). The figure is now 8.7047 trillion yuan (US$1.088 trillion).

 

While announcing the revision of some of the general figures, the NBS did not mention when a final report of 2005 economic data would be published.

 

According to a new practice of measuring the economy, the NBS releases three reports each year; the first being a preliminary account, the second a preliminary confirmation, and the third the final account. Yesterday's report was the preliminary confirmation.

 

From time to time, the central government's economic statistics can be markedly lower compared with the aggregate of figures released by regional governments.

 

However, according to Qiu Xiaohua, director of the NBS, the differences between the central government's data and those from the regional governments are not only caused by the latter's attempts to inflate their growth.

 

The differences, he said earlier, could also be a result of cross-region investments and supply chain movements, region-to-region price differentiations, and the weight of certain types of production in one region which might be insignificant at the national level.

 

(China Daily August 31, 2006)