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Year-on-year growth in GDP for the second quarter is expected to
hit 11.4 percent, its highest point in years, according to Deputy
Director Fan Jianping of the State Information Center's Economic
Forecast Department.
However, says Fan, the figure is artificially inflated owing the
impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic on GDP
growth last year. If this year's figure were adjusted to discount
the effects of the SARS outbreak, growth would be only 9.2 percent,
the same as that in the first quarter.
GDP growth for the April-June period in 2003 was just 6.7 percent
year-on-year. Tertiary industry was hit particularly hard, with
industrial added value inching up just 0.8 percent.
(China.org.cn June 3, 2004)
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