Special Report: Global Financial Crisis
BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China's fixed asset investment in the first quarter rose 28.8 percent year on year to 2.81 trillion yuan (411.4 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced Thursday.
The growth rate was 4.2 percentage points higher than the year before, said NBS spokesman Li Xiaochao.
Urban fixed asset investment stood at 2.36 trillion yuan in the first quarter, up 28.6 percent year on year, or 2.7 percentage points higher. The year-on-year growth in March was 30.3 percent, Li said.
Fixed asset investment in rural areas was up 29.4 percent to 456.7 billion yuan, or 11.1 percentage points higher year on year.
The growth rate in the primary sector (farming, fishing, forestry and the like) remained the highest, up by 85 percent. The secondary sector saw investment rise by 26.8 percent and the tertiary sector by 29.1 percent.
Fixed asset investment surged as the central government extended direct investments and new credit issued in the first quarter, which hit a record 4.58 trillion yuan, ensured sufficient liquidity, Li said.
The central government extended 100 billion yuan for investment last year and planned to allocate 130 billion yuan this year to rural infrastructure projects, such as railways and roads, as well as healthcare and education, he said.
"The economy showed obvious signs of recovery in March driven by investments," said Zhang Hanya, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission.
"It is usually three months to half a year between making decisions and putting in place investments. The first quarter statistics reflected investment projects that were made after the rolling out of the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package last November. But more new projects have been carried out early this year," he said.
According to the NBS, the total investment involved in new projects rose 87.7 percent in the first quarter year on year.
Zhang predicted the fixed asset investment in the second quarter may surge 30 percent from a year earlier.
BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's exports
fell for the fifth month in a row to 90.29 billion U.S. dollars in March, down
17.1 percent from a year earlier, the General Administration of Customs said
Friday.
In February, exports plummeted 25.7 percent year on year,
the worst decline in more than a decade. Full story
BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- China's foreign
exchange reserves rose 16 percent year-on-year to 1.9537 trillion U.S. dollars
by the end of March, said the People's Bank of China on Saturday.
It represents an increase of 7.7 billion dollars for the first quarter, but
the increase was 146.2 billion dollars lower than the same period of last
year. Full story
BEIJING, April 14 -- Home prices declined in
March compared to a year earlier in 70 Chinese cities as they extended losses
for a fourth consecutive month, the country's top economic planner said on
Monday.
Prices in 70 medium and large cities fell 1.3 percent year
on year last month, the National Development and Reform Commission said on its
website. Prices dropped 1.2 percent in February, 0.9 percent in January and 0.4
percent in December. Full story
BEIJING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry
of Finance (MOF) said Monday that fiscal revenue fell 0.3 percent from a year
earlier to 440.22 billion yuan (64.43 billion U.S. dollars) in March.
First-quarter fiscal revenue fell 8.3 percent to 1.46
trillion yuan, the ministry said on its website, while tax revenue shrank 10.3
percent to 1.3 trillion yuan. Full story
BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) -- China's business
climate index, a main gauge of macro-economic outlook, continued to fall in the
first quarter, but the decline was much smaller than that for the previous
quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.
The quarterly business climate index slipped from 107 at
the end of last year to 105.6 in the first quarter this year, the NBS said. It
was the third drop in a row as the deepening global financial crisis continues
to hit the Chinese economy. Full story
BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Foreign
investment activities dampened by the world financial crisis seemed to show
signs of warming up in China as the decline of foreign direct investment (FDI)
continued to slow in March.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on
Wednesday showed the FDI dropped for the sixth consecutive month in March to 8.4
billion U.S. dollars, down 9.5 percent from a year earlier. Full story
BEIJING, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Power consumption
in China continued to decline in March but the downward pace was slower,
reflecting signs of a recovering economy, industry figures showed Tuesday.
China's power use fell 2.01 percent year on year in March,
compared with a dip of 5.2 percent in the January-February period, said the
China Electricity Council (CEC) in a statement on its Website. Full story
TIANJIN, April 14 (Xinhua) -- China's steel
industry overestimated the country's demand for iron ore and as a result
imported a record high amount of the material in March.
A surge of domestic steel output and price increases in
the beginning of 2009 raised market expectations. Many domestic steel mills and
traders increased orders for iron ore in February and March as they anticipated
demand would continue growing, said Liang Shuhe, deputy-director with the
Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), at an industry
conference in the port city of Tianjin Monday. Full story
BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Sales of
domestically produced motor vehicles in China set a new record of 1.11 million
units in March, up 5 percent from a year earlier, the China Association of
Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said Thursday.
This was the third consecutive month that China's auto sales exceeded the
United States, the world's largest auto market. Full story
|
China's eonomic figures for first 2 month |
Economic data in Feb.
Full story
Economic data in Jan.
China's CPI up 1%
in January: BEIJING, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- China's consumer price
index (CPI), a major gauge of inflation, rose by 1 percent in January over the
same month last year, the National Bureau of Statistics announced Tuesday.
China's PPI down 3.3% in January:
In January, the producer price index (PPI), another measure of
inflation at the wholesale level, dropped 3.3 percent. The decline was 2.2
percentage points above the December level. Full story
