China's economy grew 9.8 percent in 2005, said Ou Xinqian, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission Sunday.

 

The commission's previous estimate for last year's economic growth was 9.4 percent. This figure was adjusted according to the newly-revised GDP in 2004.

 

China last month revised the size of its economy in 2004 by 16.8 percent to 15.99 trillion yuan (US$1.93 trillion), with over 90 percent of the newly-added 2.3 trillion yuan from better data about the services sector.

 

Ou revealed the figure at a meeting on the coal supply and demand. She said China's CPI remained within two percent in 2004 and the fixed assets investment grew 25 percent.

 

Aslo on Sunday,  according to a report posted on the website of the State Administration of Taxation (SAT), China's total tax revenues reached a record high of 3.0866 trillion yuan (US$385.8 billion) in 2005, an increase of 20 percent, or 514.8 billion yuan, year-on-year.

 

The figure did not include Customs duties and agricultural tax.

 

This is the first time that the nation's tax revenues exceeded 3 trillion yuan, the report said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 2, 2006)