Nation's GDP up 9.4% on back of spending By Su Bei (China Daily) Updated: 2005-10-21 05:44
Rising consumer spending coupled with strong fixed-asset investment helped
China's economy grow by a sizzling 9.4 per cent year-on-year in the third
quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.
Chinese workers lay a railway in Pudong,
Shanghai, October 20, 2005. China's economy expanded a
faster-than-expected 9.4 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier
and is showing little sign of cooling amid strong industrial output and
investment. [newsphoto] | The gross domestic
product, which stood at 10.6 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion) during the period,
continued to maintain steady and rapid growth, NBS spokesman Zheng Jingping
said.
The third quarter's figure follows similar stellar growth of 9.5 per cent in
the second quarter and 9.4 per cent in the first.
Retail sales, an important indicator of consumption, rose 13 per cent
year-on-year to 4.5 trillion yuan (US$554.8 billion) during the first three
quarters of this year, as people increased spending on goods such as cars and
mobile phones and services such as air travel.
Domestically-made passenger vehicle sales grew by 16.8 per cent in the first
three quarters to 2.8 million units from a year ago.
The world's largest mobile-phone maker Nokia said its sales in China jumped
76 per cent to 7.4 million handsets in the second quarter.
China Eastern, the country's third-largest carrier, said yesterday that it
flew 2.51 million passengers last month, 55 per cent more than a year earlier.
Zhuang Jian, a senior economist with the Asian
Development Bank's resident mission in China, said sales were boosted by rising
household incomes and stable prices.
|