Beijing posts double-digit economic growth in first three quarters

National capital Beijing registered 354.2 billion yuan (43.72 billion US dollars) of GDP in the first three quarters this year, a year on year rise of 10.5 percent, according to the municipal statistics bureau on Monday.

The bureau figures show that the growth rate was 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average for the same period.

Beijing's economy has grown by an average of 10.7 percent annually in the past ten years, and the 10.5 percent growth rate indicates that the local economy is still on a track of fast growth, said Yu Xiuqin, a spokesperson for the bureau.

The added value of the local agricultural sector was 7.56 billion yuan in the first quarters, down by 3.1 percent from the same period last year; the added value of the industrial sector surged 11.5 percent year on year to reach 150.43 billion yuan in the three-quarter period and the added value of the tertiary sector reached 196.21 billion yuan, up 10.3 percent.

Beijing used 2.82 billion US dollars of foreign funds in the first three quarters, up 13.3 percent over last year's same period. The city hosted 2.681 million overseas tourists, up 18.6 percent year on year.

Yu described Beijing's economic development as stable in the first three quarters and predicted a double-digit growth rate for 2005.

Source: Xinhua