Nation's GDP up 10.9 pct in 2nd quarter
(AP)
Updated: 2006-07-13 11:50
China's economy grew a stunning 10.9 percent in the second quarter, along
with sharp gains in industrial production and investment, a state-run newspaper
reported Thursday.
A labourer works on the scaffoldings at a
construction site in Xiangfan, central China's Hubei province July 11,
2006. China's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is set to increase
slightly to 10.9 percent in the second quarter, from 10.3 percent in the
first quarter, a Chinese government think-tank forecast on Tuesday.
[Reuters] |
The figures suggest that measures to curb investment and cool growth have yet
to take hold. Official data for the first half of the year won't be released
until later this month.
The 10.9 percent growth in the April-June period from a year ago reported by
the state-run newspaper Securities Times is even faster than the 10.3 percent
growth recorded in the first quarter.
Industrial output, meanwhile, rose 19.5 percent in the second quarter from
the same period last year, while spending on construction and factory equipment,
known in China as "fixed assets investment," surged 35 percent, the Securities
Times report said, citing unnamed sources.
The consumer price index, the main measure of inflation, rose 1.5 percent in
June from a year earlier, the report said.
On Wednesday, the country's top planning agency forecast that China would
report 10.4 percent growth for the first half of the year, the Xinhua News
Agency reported.
In that report, the National Development and Reform Commission reiterated
earlier calls for stronger action to curb excessive investment in factories and
construction -- considered one of the key factors keeping growth at what China's
leaders call unsustainably high levels.
It suggested a further "mild" increase of 0.25 percentage point in the
country's benchmark lending rate, following an increase of 0.27 percentage
points in late April to 5.85 percent.
Officials at the National Bureau of Statistics told Dow Jones Newswires they
could not confirm the figures. A news conference is scheduled for Tuesday to
report on economic performance for June and the first half of 2006.
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