In the first half of this year, China finished a gross domestic product (GDP) of 5.0053 trillion yuan (about US$605 billion), up 8.2 percent from the same period last year in constant terms.
Spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics Yao Jingyuan told a press conference Thursday that although the growth was slower than that in the first quarter, it was still 0.4 percentage points faster than the growth in the same period last year and was one of the fastest growth periods in recent years.
He attributed the growth to the recovery of industrial production, market sales and other major economic indices in last June as well as the strong growth of investment in fixed assets and foreign trade in the first six months.
Statistics show that the added value of the primary industry was 475.4 billion yuan, up 2.7 percent; that of the secondary industry was 2.88 trillion yuan, up 11.6 percent; and that of the tertiary industry was 1.6499 trillion yuan, up 4.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the value added output from Chinese large industrial enterprises in the first half year totaled 1836.3 billion yuan (about US$229.5 billion), 16.2 percent more than that of same time last year.
The growth rate of the value added output from Chinese large industrial enterprises also recorded 4.5 percent increase, the fastest growth of the same period since 1994, Yao added.
(Edited by china.org.cn from Xinhua July 17, 2003)
