China releases nine-month economic statistics

China releases nine-month economic statistics

China’s State Statistics Bureau released on October 20 its nine-month economic statistics. GDP in the third quarter was RMB 10.6275 trillion ($1.31 trillion). While GDP was up 9.4 percent year on year, it came in 0.1 percentage point lower than the previous year. In the first three quarters, nationwide industrial enterprises (all the state-owned enterprises and other enterprises with annual sales revenue over RMB 5 million ($616’500)) accounted for RMB 5.0450 trillion ($622 billion) of GDP, a year-on-year increase of 16.3 percent. Sales volume was in line with the output. The sales rate of nationwide industrial enterprises was 97.86 percent, which was equal to the prior year. Social fixed assets investment contributed RMB 5.7061 trillion ($704 billion) to the nine-month GDP figures, up 26.1 percent year on year but 1.6 percentage points lower than last year. Broken down further, urban fixed assets investment was RMB 4.8741 trillion ($601 billion), a year-on-year increase of 27.7 percent but 2.2 percentage points lower compared to last year. The total volume of social retail consumption was RMB 4.5081 trillion ($556 billion), up 13.0 percent year on year. If inflation is not taken into consideration, the actual growth rate was 12.1 percent, up 2.4 percentage points from the previous year. Markets saw a stable upward trend. Import and export volume totaled $1.0245 trillion, up 23.7 percent year on year. The growth rate was 0.5 percentage points higher than the first half of this year but 13.0 points lower than that of the previous year. The contracted volume of foreign direct investment was $130.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.8 percent. However, the actual amount used fell 2.1 percent to $43.2 billion. China’s foreign exchange reserves were $769 billion at the end of September 2005, up $159.1 billion from earlier in the year. Per capita disposable income for urban dwellers was RMB 7’902 ($974), up 9.8 percent if inflation is not taken into consideration. The per capita income of those living in rural areas was RMB 2’450 ($302), up 11.5 percent in real terms. These statistics show that China’s national economy maintains a rapid upward trend. The main problems in the economy at present are the weak agricultural sector - the increase in grain is not in line with that of farmers’ revenue; the large amount of fixed assets investment with unreasonable structure; the imbalanced import and export; and the decrease in the profit margin of some industrial enterprises. SteelOrbis Shanghai