The gross domestic product of the booming south China province of Guangdong would have been 27 percent lower in 2003 if adjusted for environmental costs, China Daily reported Wednesday.

The English language newspaper cited a joint report by two research institutes in Guangdong, which says the green GDP of the province for that year was recorded as 1,118.9 billion yuan (134.81 billion US dollars), compared with the conventional GDP of 1,537.6 billion yuan (185.25 billion US dollars).

The report was published by the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Guangdong Institute of Eco-environment and Soil Sciences, it said.

Both the conventional and green GDP figures were calculated using the individual results of 21 cities in Guangdong. Therefore the conventional GDP figure does not tally with that provided by the Provincial Statistics Bureau which is based on records for the whole province.

The report marks an initial attempt to calculate the environmental costs behind economic growth at a time when the country is giving priority to sustainable growth.

Guangdong, along with nine other provinces and municipalities, was chosen by the central government in March to conduct experiments on calculating green GDP.

The full test results are expected to be released next year and will lay the foundation for a nationwide system of green GDP calculations.

The independent research by the two institutes in Guangdong was based on the formula of "conventional GDP minus the depreciation of fixed assets, minus the reduction in the value of natural resources and minus environmental losses," Kuang Yaoqiu, a leading researcher for the project, was quoted as saying.

According to the 2003 figures for Guangdong, the depreciation of fixed assets leads to 15.6 percent reduction in conventional GDP, while a further 0.69 percent covers the reduction in the value of natural resources, and a 10.8 percent reduction represents environmental losses.

The formula and calculating models used in the study were in part devised by project staff and in part taken from work carried out by international experts, according to Kuang.

Source: Xinhua