Booming Economy Bodes Well for Baidu

BEIJING, Oct. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- The Chinese economy grew a robust 9.4 percent in the first nine months, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics announced here Thursday.

Preliminary estimates show that China's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 10.63 trillion yuan (1.3 trillion US dollars), a year-on-year rise of 9.4 percent, or 0.1 percentage point decline from the growth of a year earlier, said Zheng Jingping, the spokesman.

Of this total, the primary industry registered a value-added of 1.35 trillion yuan (166.5 billion dollars), up 5 percent. The value-added of secondary industry totaled 6.04 trillion yuan (744.8 billion dollars), up 11.1 percent, and that of the tertiary industry rose 8.1 percent to 3.23 trillion yuan (398.3 billion dollars).

The economy showed a steady growth momentum with GDP growth rates standing at 9.4 percent, 9.5 percent and 9.4 percent for the first, second and third quarter, respectively, Zheng said.

Retail sales up 13.0% Jan-Sept.

China's retail sales of consumer goods in the first nine months hit 4,508.1 billion yuan (556.56 billion US dollars), up 13.0 percent year-on-year, or a growth of 12.1 percent in real terms, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)said here on Thursday

Figures from the NBS show that in September alone, the figure came to 549.5 billion yuan, up 12.7 percent.

The real growth was 2.4 percentage points higher than that of a year earlier, according to NBS.

The retail sales rose 14.0 percent to 3,030.9 billion yuan in urban areas, and 11.0 percent to 1,477.2 billion yuan in regions at and below county level, reflecting a 13.4 percent and 9.4 percent growth in real terms respectively, or 1.3 and 4.2 percentage points higher than the growth of a year earlier.

Of the sales by wholesale and retail business above designated size, communication equipments rose 20.1 percent, oil and oil products up 38.3 percent and automobiles up 13.1 percent, according to NBS.

Industrial production up 16.3% in first nine months

China's industrial production grewby 16.3 percent in the first nine months this year to 5,045 billion yuan (622.8 billion US dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.

In September alone, China's industrial production came to 627.5billion yuan, up 16.5 percent, said NBS spokesman Zheng Jingping at a press conference.

Of this total, the output rose 11.3 percent in state-owned or state-controlled enterprises, 11.9 percent in collective-owned enterprises, 17.9 percent in shareholding enterprises and 16.2 percent in foreign enterprises and those funded by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, according to NBS figures.

During the nine months, the output in heavy industry and light industry rose 16.9 percent and 14.9 percent respectively. Output of coal, electricity and steel products rose 10.2 percent, 13.4 percent and 25.8 percent year on year.

The output of motor vehicles increased 10.0 percent, of which, that of sedans was up 17.7 percent.

The sales and production were well linked in the first nine months with the sales ratio in enterprises above designated size standing at 97.86 percent, the same level as that of a year earlier.

Fixed assets investment up 26.1% in first three quarters

China's total fixed assets investment was 5,706.1 billion yuan in the first nine months, up 26.1 percent year-on-year, Zheng Jingping, spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, said here Thursday.

The growth rate represented a 1.6 percentage points decline compared with the growth of a year earlier, said Zheng at a press conference.

Investment in fixed assets in urban areas was 4,874.1 billion yuan, up 27.7 percent, or 2.2 percentage points drop from a year earlier.

Of the total urban investments, real estate development rose 22.2 percent to 1,037.8 billion yuan. Its growth was 6.1 percentage points lower than that of the previous year.

Investment in coal and oil production and in railway transport maintained rapid growth in the same period, said Zheng.

And very little inflation:

CPI up 2% in first three quarters

China's consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.0 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, a decline of 2.1 percentage points compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday.

Prices maintained a moderately upward trend with 1.7 percent rise in cities and 2.5 percent rise in rural areas, said Zheng Jingping, spokesman for the NBS, at a press conference.

In terms of commodity categories, slowed increase in food prices, particularly in grain price was the main reason for the decline in the rise of CPI, said Zheng.

In the period, food prices rose 3.3 percent, or 7.6 percentage points slower than that of a year earlier. Grain prices rose 1.9 percent while that of housing climbed 5.6 percent and prices for recreation, education, culture goods and services rose 2.6 percent.

Retail sales prices rose 0.8 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters, said Zheng.

Producer's prices of manufactured goods increased 5.4 percent and purchasing prices of raw material, fuel and power were up 9.2 percent.