Lower agricultural growth and fixed asset investment has pulled down China's economic growth in the first quarter of the year from 9.7 percent last year to 8.8 percent, but the outlooks remains strong.
The country's gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated at 8.8 percent in the quarter, much lower than 9.7 percent growth rate in the same period last year, Xinhuanet reported, citing a State Information Centre report.
Fixed asset investment would rise 24 percent, a sharp drop from the 43 percent increase recorded in the same period last year, the report said.
Slowdown of fixed asset investment was the major reason for the drop of GDP growth, said Qi Jingmei, senior economic analyst with the centre. The contribution of fixed asset investment to economic growth would drop to 57.8 percent in the first quarter, 16.9 percentage points lower than last year.
However, Qi said China's economy had entered a new booming period.
Change in consumption patterns, urbanisation and shift of international manufacturing to China would all contribute to faster economic growth, he said and added that inflationary pressures that had threatened the economy eased in the period.
The contribution to GDP of agriculture, the driving force of the economy, was also lower in the first quarter. "The slowdown of agriculture is another major reason contributing to GDP growth drop," he said.
Last year's grain output growth was mainly due to the increase of farming area and enhancement of productivity, the report said.
The growth rate of agriculture would be three percent, 3.3 percentage points lower than the fourth quarter last year, the report said. This year the agricultural sector would be hard pressed to maintain the same high growth rate, said Qi.
The growth of industrial output, a major contributor to China's economic growth, would be 17.2 percent in the first quarter, half a percentage point lower than last year.
Last year China's economic growth was higher than 9.5 percent. The government announced that this year's targeted economic growth rate was eight percent.
--Indo-Asian News Service
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Publish Date : 3/3/2007 7:03:00 AM
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Publish Date : 3/2/2007 7:06:00 AM
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Publish Date : 3/2/2007 7:03:00 AM
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Publish Date : 3/2/2007 7:01:00 AM
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Publish Date : 3/2/2007 6:59:00 AM
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Skoda slashes car prices up to Rs 24,000
Publish Date : 3/2/2007 6:56:00 AM
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Publish Date : 3/1/2007 8:30:00 AM
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India should be more conscious of global developments: RBI
Publish Date : 3/1/2007 8:19:00 AM
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