The figure for May reached 25.42 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion), a 4.8 percent increase year on year, according to figures released by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

A spokesman of the Bureau said that though the negative impact of SARS had begun emerging, the momentum of fast growth in Beijing's economy would not be reversed.

He said it was still possible for Beijing to attain its goal of a nine percent economic growth this year.

China's capital weathered the worst of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in May.

Statistics show that Beijing's tertiary industry was seriously hit by the SARS epidemic, with its added value increasing a poor 0.1 percent, 10.4 percentage points down from the previous month.

Only about 18,000 tourist arrivals from home and abroad were reported in Beijing during May, a sharp drop of 93.9 percent year on year.

However, the manufacturing sector became the major driving force fueling Beijing's economy in May, with total industrial added value reaching 7.9 billion yuan (US$952 million) in May, up 13 percent from a year earlier.

The high-tech industry registered an industrial added value of 11.55 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) from January to May, an increase of 13.9 percent year on year.

Despite SARS, Beijing still saw strong growth in its industrial exports, which totaled 14.96 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion), up 31.8 percent on a yearly basis.

In May alone, industrial exports grew 52.3 percent year on year, 19 percentage points faster than in April

(China Daily June 10,n 2003)