A steady and rapid growth was achieved in China's economy in the targeted direction set in macro-regulation, which was a good beginning, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) at a press conference on April 20.

Growth rate of investment remains high

Total investment in fixed assets stood at 1,099.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 22.8 percent, which was 20.2 percentage points lower than the rate in the same period last year.

Analysis: Fixed assets investment is still large in scale and fast in growth. A growth rate around 20 percent will be beneficial to the stable and sound development of China.

Moderate rise of prices

The consumer price index (CPI) showed a year-on-year rise of 2.8 percent in the first quarter and that in March was 2.7 percent higher than the same period last year.

Specifically, the food prices rose 6.1 percent, housing price rose 5.6 percent, those of consumer goods and services for recreation and education rose 2.6 percent. Other prices generally remained stable or decreased slightly.

Analysis: Serious monitoring is needed despite "moderate" growth of CPI in the first quarter.

9.5 percent of GPD growth rate year-on-year

Initial statistics from NBS show China's GDP was 3, 135.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate of 9.5 percent.

Analysis: The figure is 0.3 percentage point down from the same period last year but higher than the 8 percent set in the government work report.

Rural incomes grow faster than urban

In the first quarter, China's per capita cash income of rural residents hit 967 yuan, a growth of 15.9 percent in real terms; urban per capita disposable income was 2, 938 yuan, up 11.3 percent, or 8.6 percent in real terms.

Analysis: The increase rate of rural incomes is not only higher than that of the same period last year, but also higher than that of urban incomes, which is an important result of the Chinese government's continued back on agriculture and attaching importance to agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

Export up 34.9 percent

The import and export in the first quarter totaled US$295.2 billion, up 23.1 percent year-on-year, in which the export volume stood at US$155.9, up 34.9 percent and import US$139.3 billion, up 12.2 percent. Up 4.5 percent year-on-year, contractual foreign direct investment registered US$35.2 billion, with US$13.4 billion actually utilized, up 9.5 percent.

Analysis: There has been a major slowdown in the foreign investment utilized while the volume in place rose 9.5 percent, higher than the same period last year.

By People's Daily Online