NBS issues China's key economic data for Aug

By Si Tingting and Qiang Xiaoji (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-09-11 12:00

Both CPI and PPI showed a smaller year-on-year decrease in August compared with July data, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which issued China’s key economic data for August Friday.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, dipped 1.2 percent in August from a year earlier and the country's producer price index (PPI), a major measure of inflation at the wholesale level, fell 7.9 percent year-on-year, Li Xiaochao, spokesman for the NBS said at a press conference.

"We are confident of an 8-percent annual GDP growth this year as the industry has been continuously developing at an increasing speed for four months," said Li. The key economic data of the first eight months of this year indicates the likelihood of achieving the 8-percent annual GDP growth target, Li added.

He also pointed out there were still uncertainties as the world economy remains gloomy and some domestic sectors develop relatively slower such as electronic products.

Li said the economic recovery was a result of the government's policies to boost domestic demand and the investment in the second half of this year will keep increasing with a stable and fast growth in fixed-asset investment.

He told China Daily on the sidelines of the press conference that the overall situation of this year’s agriculture is good and if it harvests, the prices of agricultural products will maintain stable which is an important factor to the CPI.

China's urban fixed-asset investment rose 33.0 percent in the first eight months from a year earlier to 11.30 trillion yuan ($1.65 trillion), according to the NBS.

The country's output of electricity was 334.3 billion kW-hours in August, expanding 9.3 percent from a year earlier, said the NBS.

New loans rise to 410.4 billion yuan in August

China's new yuan-denominated lending in August rose to 410.4 billion yuan ($60.02 billion) from July's 355.9 billion yuan, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said Friday.

The August figure brought new yuan-denominated loans in the first eight months to 8.15 trillion yuan, 5.04 trillion yuan more than the same period of last year.

The broad measure of money supply, M2, which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, rose 28.53 percent from a year earlier to 57.67 trillion yuan at the end of August.

The narrow measure of money supply, M1 (cash in circulation plus current corporate deposits), was up 27.72 percent to 20.04 trillion yuan.

Xinhua contributed to the story