China's gross domestic product (GDP) soared by 11.5 percent in the first half of the year, after posting 11.9 percent in the second quarter, an official from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed this morning at a press conference.

The growth rate for the first half is 0.5 percentage points higher than the same period last year and much faster than the planned eight percent, spokesman Li Xiaochao with the National Bureau of Statistics told the press conference.

Consumption, the previously weakest engine compared with exports and investment, was no longer tailing the pack as retail sales grew 15.4 percent in the first half, 2.1 percentage points more than last year's rise in the first half. Fixed assets investment rose 25.9 percent, down 3.9 percentage points.

"The changes in domestic demand since the beginning of the year are what we were expecting," Li said, attributing the faster consumption to rising incomes among members of the public.

Chinese government has used every weapon at its disposal, imposing a battery of industrial and taxation policies to help the poor, including subsidizing low-income families and farmers, increasing minimum wages for migrant rural workers and investing more in education, medical care and housing.

"We are carefully monitoring the direction that the accelerated economic growth is taking," said Li, "but whether or not the economy has overheated is a comprehensive issue that should be viewed from different angles."

In the first half, the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors reported 947 billion, 5.55 trillion and 4.18 trillion yuan in added value, with the secondary sector, including manufacturing, mining and construction, growing at the fastest year-on-year rate of 13.6 percent.

The primary sector posted a growth rate of 4.0 percent and the tertiary sector, including transport, telecommunications, catering, tourism, banking and insurance, recorded an increase of 10.6 percent.

Food price rise driving CPI up

Price hikes on foodstuffs, principally grain, meat and fowl and eggs, were to blame for the rise of China's consumer price index (CPI) in the first half of this year, Li said.

The major inflation indicator rose 4.4 percent in June compared with a year ago, or up 0.4 percent on the previous month.

This helped jack up CPI for the first half of this year by 3.2 percent on the same period of last year. The growth rate was 1.9 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level.

In breakdowns, foodstuff prices rose 7.6 percent, with grain price up 6.4 percent, egg price up 27.9 percent and prices for meat and fowl as well as related products up 20.7 percent. However, prices of fresh vegetables and fruits went down 2.9 percent from a year earlier.

Li Xiaochao noted foodstuff prices contributed 2.5 percentage points to the CPI rise in the January-June period. He said deducting prices of foodstuff and energy, China's core CPI rose only 0.9 percent. Price hikes for foodstuff focused on grain, meat and fowl and eggs, Li added.

According to Li, the grain price rise was due largely to the rising grain prices on international markets and growing demand both at home and abroad.

Under the price hike on international grain markets, he said, China imported 800,000 tons of cereal in the first five months of this year, down 51.5 percent from a year earlier, and exported 5.06 million tons, up 53.5 percent.

China built some biological fuel projects over the past few years, which also gave rise to domestic demand for grain, Li said.

Meanwhile, means of production for agricultural products experienced a price rise of 5.2 percent in the first half of this year, a rate 3.9 percentage points higher than the year-earlier level, another contributing factor to the rise.

In terms of prices of meat and fowl, Li said, rises for pork prices were the most noticeable, as they were driven up after price hikes for animal food, transport fees and increasing pay for workers as well as a short supply brought about by dwindling profit margins.

Pig blue-ear disease outbreaks in 20-odd provinces and autonomous regions also affected the supply, Li noted.

He added that there existed potential risks for CPI to go further up in the second half of this year.

According to Zhuang Jian, a senior economist with the Asian Development Bank's China office, low-income earners would be most severely affected by continuous CPI rises at a high level. Zhuang believed the central government would act decisively to maintain economic and social stability.

According to NBS data, on year-on-year perspective, CPI was up 2.2 percent in January, up 2.7 percent in February, up 3.3 percent in March, up 3.0 percent in April and up 3.4 percent in May. The first quarter CPI stood at 2.7 percent.

In related developments, retail prices of commodities rose 2.4 percent in the first half of this year, or up 3.2 percent in June. Meanwhile, factory prices for industrial products increased by 2.8 percent in the six-month period, or up 2.5 percent in June while the buying prices of raw materials, fuel and power went up 3.8 percent in the same period, or up 3.4 percent in June.

(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2007)