BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhuanet) -- China's gross domestic product (GDP) for the first half of this year reached 6,742.2 billion yuan(812.3 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 9.5 percent.

    "It was 0.2 percentage points lower than the growth rate for the same period of last year," said Zheng Jingping, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, at a press conference here on Wednesday.

    In the first half of this year, regions and departments at all levels made all efforts in implementing the scientific approach todevelopment and various policies set by the central authorities oneconomic work, with the aim to consolidate the achievements brought by macro-control, he said.

    "As a result, fairly good overall economic performance was recorded in the first half of this year."

    In breakdown, the primary industry reported a value added of 670.7 billion yuan, up 5.0 percent; the secondary industry, 3,963.5 billion yuan, up by 11.2 percent; and the tertiary industry,2,108.0 billion yuan, up by 7.8 percent, according to the NationalBureau of Statistics. Enditem