Despite the outbreak of SARS, Guangdong Province, an economic powerhouse in south China, reported stable economic growth in the first five months of this year.
Guangdong, hit by SARS seriously this year, generated 469 billion yuan (56.7 billion US dollars) in gross domestic product (GDP) in the January-May period, up 12.6 percent over the corresponding period of last year, according to the provincial statistical bureau.
The GDP growth rate is two percentage points higher than that for the same period last year.
Guangdong's fixed asset investments reached 130 billion yuan (15.7 billion US dollars) in the first five months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 20.4 percent. The increase was 5.2 percentage points higher than that for the January-April period this year.
Of the total fixed asset investments, 50.119 billion yuan were used for infrastructure construction and 40.387 billion yuan were spent on real estate development, in addition to investment for other purposes.
Guangdong also reported increases in foreign trade and foreign investment in the first five months.
The province's foreign trade volume hit 54.09 billion US dollars for the five-month period, a year-on-year rise of 27.9 percent. The province spent 6.166 billion US dollars in the same period, a rise of 19.9 percent.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2003)
