The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) held a press conference in Beijing on Thursday morning, introducing the economic situations in the past three quarters.

GDP grows 9.4%

Preliminary estimates show that China's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 10.63 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion), a year-on-year rise of 9.4 percent, or 0.1 percentage point decline from the growth of a year earlier, said Zheng Jingping, the spokesman.

Of this total, the primary industry registered a value-added of 1.35 trillion yuan (US$166.5 billion), up 5 percent. The value-added of secondary industry totaled 6.04 trillion yuan (US$744.8 billion), up 11.1 percent, and that of the tertiary industry rose 8.1 percent to 3.23 trillion yuan (US$398.3 billion).

The economy showed a steady growth momentum with GDP growth rates standing at 9.4 percent, 9.5 percent and 9.4 percent for the first, second and third quarter, respectively, Zheng said.

Fixed assets investment up 26.1%

Total fixed assets investment was 5,706.1 billion yuan in the first nine months, up 26.1 percent year-on-year. The growth rate represented a 1.6 percentage points decline compared with the growth of a year earlier.

Investment in fixed assets in urban areas was 4,874.1 billion yuan, up 27.7 percent, or 2.2 percentage points drop from a year earlier.

Of the total urban investments, real estate development rose 22.2 percent to 1,037.8 billion yuan. Its growth was 6.1 percentage points lower than that of the previous year.

Investment in coal and oil production and in railway transport maintained rapid growth in the same period, said Zheng.

Industrial production rises 16.3%

China's industrial production grew by 16.3 percent in the first nine months this year to 5,045 billion yuan. In September alone, China's industrial production came to 627.5 billion yuan, up 16.5 percent.

Of this total, the output rose 11.3 percent in state-owned or state-controlled enterprises, 11.9 percent in collective-owned enterprises, 17.9 percent in shareholding enterprises and 16.2 percent in foreign enterprises and those funded by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, according to NBS figures.

During the nine months, the output in heavy industry and light industry rose 16.9 percent and 14.9 percent respectively. Output of coal, electricity and steel products rose 10.2 percent, 13.4 percent and 25.8 percent year on year.

The output of motor vehicles increased 10.0 percent, of which, that of sedans was up 17.7 percent.

The sales and production were well linked in the first nine months with the sales ratio in enterprises above designated size standing at 97.86 percent, the same level as that of a year earlier.

CPI up 2%

Consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.0 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, a decline of 2.1 percentage points compared with a year earlier. Prices maintained a moderately upward trend with 1.7 percent rise in cities and 2.5 percent rise in rural areas.

In terms of commodity categories, slowed increase in food prices, particularly in grain price was the main reason for the decline in the rise of CPI, said Zheng.

In the period, food prices rose 3.3 percent, or 7.6 percentage points slower than that of a year earlier. Grain prices rose 1.9 percent while that of housing climbed 5.6 percent and prices for recreation, education, culture goods and services rose 2.6 percent.

Retail sales prices rose 0.8 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters.

Producer's prices of manufactured goods increased 5.4 percent and purchasing prices of raw material, fuel and power were up 9.2 percent.

Retail sales of consumer goods up 13%

China's retail sales of consumer goods in the first nine months hit 4,508.1 billion yuan (US$556.56 billion), up 13.0 percent year-on-year, or a growth of 12.1 percent in real terms. In September alone, the figure came to 549.5 billion yuan, up 12.7 percent.

The real growth was 2.4 percentage points higher than that of a year earlier, according to NBS.

The retail sales rose 14.0 percent to 3,030.9 billion yuan in urban areas, and 11.0 percent to 1,477.2 billion yuan in regions at and below county level, reflecting a 13.4 percent and 9.4 percent growth in real terms respectively, or 1.3 and 4.2 percentage points higher than the growth of a year earlier.

Of the sales by wholesale and retail business above designated size, communication equipments rose 20.1 percent, oil and oil products up 38.3 percent and automobiles up 13.1 percent, according to NBS.

RMB exchange rate to remain stable

China's currency exchange rate will remain stable for a period of time, Zhen Jingping said.

"That's a pure coincidence, and it won't occur this year," Zhen told a press conference.

The key to the exchange rate reform lies in the change of the forming mechanism of the rate, not simply the exchange rate itself, he said.

Oil price has limited impact on economy

"The oil price increase surely will have impact on China's economy as 40 percent of oil consumed in the country is imported," said Zheng, "especially on some sectors, like agricultural means of production, oil refinery and public transport. But the impact is limited."

According to International Monetary Fund, the world oil price will rise by 40 percent over last year's level. The high price has caused impact on world economy.

Zheng said that China's total oil consumption is not high, accounting for eight percent of world total.

Besides, China has a lot of supplanting energy sources, like coal and natural gas.

China's utilization and development of natural gas has great potential, said Zheng, adding that currently, China's natural gas/crude oil consumption proportion stands at 0.24:1, compared with 1:1 in some foreign countries.

Coal consumption accounts for 75 percent of total energy consumption in China. The technology of coal converting to oil has been put into manufacturing process, said Zheng.

Zheng noted that though the impact is limited, China should be cautious and take measures to minimize the impact.

Zheng criticized the speculation on world oil market, saying that current high oil price is abnormal.

"The current oil price couldn't represents the relations between supply and demand, " said Zheng." speculation has played a more important role in the increase of oil prices."

He noted that speculation of oil price has caused great attention from all over the world. If the speculation continues, it will do harm not only to China's economy, but also to the world economy. The speculators will also be affected when the bubbles break, said Zheng.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2005)