Beijing and Guangdong Province yesterday reported substantially higher figures for their gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004, following a revision of the national figure on Tuesday.

The capital's GDP last year was revised to 606 billion yuan (US$74.18 billion), 41.5 percent higher than previously reported.

Cui Shuqiang, head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, said the updated figure ranks the capital 10th among provinces and municipalities in terms of economic size.

Cui attributed the "huge increase" to methodology improvements and said the revision reflects the actual progress in economic and social development, especially the booming service sector.

Per capita GDP topped US$4,970 in 2004. "It was US$1,457 higher than the initial figure, and ranks the city second only to Shanghai in that category," he said.

The updated figures came a day after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced that the country's GDP in 2004 was 16.8 percent higher than previously reported, mainly because of taking into full account the service sector.

As a result of revision, Beijing's ratio of the service sector to GDP in 2004 rose from 60 percent to 67.8 percent. At the same time, the ratio of manufacturing and construction fell to 30.6 percent from 37.6 percent; and agriculture shrank to 1.6 percent from 2.4 percent.

Energy consumption per 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) of GDP output fell to 0.85 tons of standard coal from the previous estimate of 1.19 tons in Beijing. This is because the "service industry consumes less energy than traditional sectors."

Nationwide economic censuses will be conducted every five years, said Cui, saying that the next survey will be in 2008.

In South China's Guangdong Province, the GDP for 2004 was revised up 17.6 percent to 1,886.46 billion yuan (US$227.8 billion) yesterday.

It remained the largest economy among provinces and municipalities.

The weight of the service industry in the provincial economy was revised up to 44.3 percent from 36.8 percent, said Bu Xinmin, director of the provincial statistics bureau.

(China Daily December 22, 2005)