Beijing achieved an economic growth of 9.6 percent in the first six months this year, above the average level in the country, the city statistics bureau said Tuesday.
This means the city still maintains a strong economic growth momentum despite the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.
Statistics show Beijing's gross domestic product increased 9.6 percent year-on-year to 151.61 billion yuan (US$18.26 billion US dollars) in the six months.
According to the bureau, the growth was mainly driven by the secondary industry, which soared by 12.5 percent in the first half year and contributed to 48 percent of the economic growth. The automotive industry alone contributed to almost 50 percent of the industrial growth.
While investment grew by 15 percent in the January-June period, consumption of housing and cars increased rapidly. The sales of cars contributed to more than 50 percent of the total commodity consumption, pushing the total retail sales of the city up by seven percentage points. Housing sales also jumped by 68 percent.
In the first half of the year, Beijing introduced 1.33 billion US dollars of contractual foreign investment, up 22.1 percent from a year earlier, and actually used 1.02 billion US dollars of foreign direct investment, up 11.8 percent.
(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2003)
