Central China's Henan Province achieved 397.5 billion yuan (47.89 billion US dollars) in gross domestic product (GDP) during the first half of this year, the province's highest growth rate in eight years and an increase of 13.9 percent over the same period in 2003.

Henan's increase is well above the national average growth of 9.7 percent.

The province's primary industry grew 7.4 percent year-on-year to 75 billion yuan (some 9 billion US dollars), the industrial sector grew 17.2 percent to 196 billion yuan (23.6 billion US dollars) and the service sector 12.7 percent to 126 billion yuan (15 billion US dollars).

The value of its imports and exports amounted to 2.89 billion US dollars in the six months, up 36 percent year-on-year.

Local grain output hit a record high of 25 billion kilograms inthe six-month period, a rise of 7.9 percent on a yearly basis.

Source: Xinhua