The capital's economy maintained strong momentum during the first
half of the year, with its gross domestic product (GDP) increasing
by 9.1 percent compared with the same period last year, according
to an economic conference held on last Friday.
Beijing also pooled more investment in social fixed assets and
enjoyed improved retail sales of consumer goods, rising 23.4 per
cent and 5.3 per cent respectively, conference participants
announced.
"Beijing's economic growth is mainly attributed to an investment
stimulus," Beijing Mayor Liu Qi said at the conference to review
the capital's economic performance for the first six months.
Having maintained a large volume increase and fast-speed progress,
the real estate sector got the lion's share of the investment, he
said.
By
the end of June, the accumulated funds put into real estate reached
33.89 billion yuan (US$4.1 billion), 36.2 per cent higher than that
of last year, and accounting for 55.2 per cent of the total social
investment, statistics showed.
At
the same time, high-tech industries also developed rapidly. The
Zhongguancun area in particular, which is regarded as Beijing's
Silicon Valley, turned over a 55 per cent increase in business tax
compared with the same period last year.
Furthermore, the average cash income of urban and rural residents
surged 16.2 per cent and 13.6 per cent to reach 6,256.5 yuan
(US$754) and 3,342 yuan (US$400) respectively in the first half of
the year.
Most surprisingly, local coffer continued to keep a double-digit
growth - 25.1 per cent higher than the same period last year - to
reach 27.2 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) in the first half of the
year, Liu said.
Statistics also showed that exports, contractual foreign funds and
foreign funds really in place increased 4.6 per cent, 30.4 per cent
and 180 per cent respectively, compared with the same period last
year.
(China Daily July 22, 2002)
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