China has registered a solid growth track since 2003, and its
economy has expanded quickly and in a stable manner, the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.
Living standards have also improved considerably, as income
levels have steadily increased since the 16th National Congress of
the Communist Party of China convened in 2002, according to the
NBS.
The economy expanded by more than 10 percent in each of the last
four years, at an average of 10.4 percent. That is more than double
the average growth rate of the world economy during the same
period, and is higher than any period in China since reform and
opening-up in the late 1970s.
The economy remained stable as it steamed ahead. In the last
four years, the growth rate never fluctuated by more than 1.1
percentage points. Meanwhile, consumer prices have also remained
stable at about 2.1 percent per year.
China's overall economic volume was the world's fourth largest
in 2005. It was the sixth largest in 2002. The gap between China
and the US, Japan and Germany - the top three world economies - has
also narrowed in terms of gross domestic product (GDP).
As its economy has grown, China now contributes more than 5.5
percent of the world's GDP, up from 4.4 percent in 2002.
China's booming economy also saw its per capita income cross the
threshold of $2,000 for the first time in 2006. According to World
Bank standards, China should no longer be considered a low-income
nation, as its per capita income now resembles that of a
middle-income country.
While enjoying such rapid and stable economic growth, China has
restructured its economy to increase the weight of its service
sector in poorer western regions, the NBS said.
By 2006, the service industry accounted for 40.1 percent of the
economy, as retail sales increased by an average of 12.2 percent
each year in the four years.
Rural development
China has found it easier to develop its rural regions due to
the growth of fixed-assets investment. These investments often
reflect the potential for development in a region, and have
increased faster in the middle, western and northeast regions. In
2006, for example, fixed-assets investment in the middle provinces
accounted for 19.3 percent of the national total, 1.6 percentage
points higher than in 2002.
This indicates that those regions that are lagging behind
economically are gaining greater potential for future
development.
Overall national fixed-assets investment reached 32.5 trillion
yuan between 2003 and 2006, more than during the period between
1981 and 2002. Fixed-assets investment grew at an average rate of
26.6 percent over the last four years, 6.2 percentage points higher
than the period between 1981 and 2002.
China has also seen its urban population grow steadily in the
past four years as its rural population has decreased, which helps
balance national development, the NBS said.
The bureau predicted that as the State puts in more resources to
build a new countryside and further increases its subsidies to
farmers, the income of farmers will continue to grow, which will
further promote the balanced development of urban and rural
areas.
In 2006, rural residents saw their incomes grow by 7.4 percent
to an average of 3,587 yuan. Their income increased by more than 6
percent for three consecutive years, which was rare in the past,
the NBS said.
The average income of urban residents was 11,759 yuan in 2006,
up 10.4 percent from 2005. It was the fourth consecutive year that
urban income increased by more than 7 percent.
Booming coffers
Chinese enterprises have registered impressive profit records,
bolstering the national economic growth.
Corporate profits as a whole grew at an average of more than 20
percent each year in the past four years.
Meanwhile, the national coffers have reaped more revenue. They
reached 3.87 trillion yuan in 2006, which is more than double the
total in 2002. It represents an average annual growth of 19.6
percent.
Increased fiscal revenue has also made it possible to make more
payment transfers to the economically backward regions, the NBS
said.
The national drive to conserve energy and reduce emissions has
also progressed over the past four years. While the energy
consumption per unit of GDP increased for three consecutive years
by 2005, the index finally decreased in 2006. This has been a
hard-won result, the NBS said.
The growth of major polluting emissions, meanwhile, has been
slowing, the NBS said, indicating strengthened policy
enforcement.
China has also built up its infrastructure and has enhanced its
industrial equipment to back up the development of core industries,
such as energy production, the NBS said.
In 2006, the NBS said, China produced energy in amounts
equivalent to 2.2 billion tons of coal, up by 53.7 percent from
2002.
China also saw rapid progress in trade. Its trade volume reached
$1.76 trillion in 2006, the third largest in the world. In 2002, it
was the sixth largest.
China's income from international tourism has also grown
rapidly, the NBS said.
In 2006, there were 35.6 percent more tourists in China than in
2002. The country recorded $33.9 billion in revenue from
international tourism, 66.5 percent more than in 2002.
(China Daily September 19, 2007)
