Press briefing on H1 economic data

Hu Kaihong:

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! Welcome to the press conference organized by the State Council Information Office. We are honored to have Sheng Laiyun, spokesperson and director-general of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the NBS, here today to summarize the performance of China's national economy during the first half of 2014. Sheng will also take questions from the press. Now let us give the floor to Sheng for a brief introduction.

Sheng Laiyun: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning! I'm very glad to meet you again. According to protocol, let me summarize for you the major index data of the Chinese economy during the first half of the year, before I answer your questions.

Since the beginning of 2014, in the face of complicated external and internal conditions, the Central Party Committee and the State Council have taken the initiative in economic development and adopted scientific measures to stabilize economic growth, promote reforms, enhance restructuring and benefit the people. The economy has been generally stable, structural adjustment achieved stable progress and transformation and upgrading gained momentum with reform and innovation as the engine and restructuring as the booster, during which the power of the market has been made full use of and more attention has been paid to targeted regulation.

According to preliminary estimations, gross domestic product (GDP) of China will be 26.9 trillion yuan (US$4.33 trillion) in 2014, a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percent at comparable prices. Specifically, the year-on-year growth of the first quarter was 7.4 percent and 7.5 percent for the second quarter. The value added of the primary industry was 1.98 trillion yuan, up by 3.9 percent; secondary industry was 12.39 trillion yuan, up by 7.4 percent; and tertiary industry 12.54 trillion yuan, up by 8.0 percent. The gross domestic product in the second quarter of 2014 increased by 2.0 percent.

1. Agricultural production showed good momentum.

The total grain output in 2014 was 136.60 million tons, an increase of 4.75 million tons, up by 3.6 percent. The total output of oil-bearing crops 13.76 million tons, an increase of 340,000 tons, or 2.5 percent. The output of pork, beef, mutton and poultry was 40.03 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.7 percent, among which the output of pork was 27.05 million tons, up by 3.0 percent.

2. Industrial production grew steadily.

The total value added of the industrial enterprises above designated size in the first half of the year was up by 8.8 percent at comparable prices, 0.1 percentage point faster than the first quarter. An analysis by types of ownership showed that the value added growth of the state-owned and state holding enterprises went up by 5.5 percent; collective enterprises by 3.2 percent; share-holding enterprises by 10.2 percent; and enterprises funded by foreign investors or investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan increased by 7.4 percent. In terms of sectors, the added value in mining grew by 4.6 percent on a year-on-year basis, manufacturing by 9.9 percent and electricity, thermal power, gas and the production and supply of water by 4.4 percent. The growth rates in the eastern, central and western regions were up by 8.4 percent, 8.8 percent and 10.8 percent respectively. Out of the 464 kinds of industrial products, 346 kinds increased year-on-year. In the first half of the year, the sales-output ratio of industrial enterprises above designated size reached 97.5 percent, remaining flat compared to the same period last year. The export delivery value reached 5.61 trillion yuan, up by 5.3 percent. In June, the total added value of industrial enterprises above designated size was up by 9.2 percent year-on-year, faster than the previous two months, or up by 0.77 percent month-on-month.

In the first five months of this year, profits made by industrial enterprises above designated size stood at 2.28 trillion yuan, up by 9.8 percent year-on-year. Of this total, the profit from primary activities was 2,138.8 billion yuan, up by 9.1 percent. The costs for per-hundred-yuan turnover of primary activities of the industrial enterprises above designated size reached 85.9 yuan and the profit rate of the primary activities was 5.47 percent.