Year-on-year growth in GDP for the second quarter is expected to hit 11.4 percent, its highest point in years, according to Deputy Director Fan Jianping of the State Information Center's Economic Forecast Department.

However, says Fan, the figure is artificially inflated owing the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic on GDP growth last year. If this year's figure were adjusted to discount the effects of the SARS outbreak, growth would be only 9.2 percent, the same as that in the first quarter.

GDP growth for the April-June period in 2003 was just 6.7 percent year-on-year. Tertiary industry was hit particularly hard, with industrial added value inching up just 0.8 percent.

(China.org.cn June 3, 2004)