China's economy to grow by 9.4 percent in 2005: NDRC

China's Minister of National Development and Reform Commission Ma Kai said at a national work conference on Dec. 4 that his projection of 2005 GDP growth was 9.4 percent, reported today's People's Daily.

"The national economy has maintained momentum so far this year," he said, adding that the stability of the economic operation has also improved.

China's economy was on a 9.5 percent fast track on average for the previous two years and continued the significant upturn at a speed of 9.5, 9.5 and 9.4 percent for the first three quarters of this year.

Ma noticed the high speed growth and low inflation, reflecting better coordinated way of development. The consumer price index (CPI) crept up by 1.9 percent in the first 10 months of the year over the same period of last year and was expected to climb no more than 2 percent for the whole year.

The enhancement happens simultaneously both in returns and speed. The fiscal revenue soared 18.2 percent, or more than 410 billion yuan for the first 10 months. Industrial enterprises classified as ˇ°scale enterprisesˇ±, that is, those with annual sales exceeding 5 million yuan, saw their profits up by 19.4 percent year-on-year.

The consumption growth is catching up with that of investment. The prediction for the growth of fixed asset investment for the whole year of 2005 is 25 percent while the retailing sales will jump by 13 percent. This means the gap between the investment growth and the retailing sales growth will be narrowed by 1.3 percentage points.

The 7.9 percent and 12 percent rise in coal and power supply respectively will ease the tension between the economic development and the support system. The coal production, it is expected, will reach 2.11 billion ton and the electricity generation will come to 2.45 trillion kilowatts.

Progress has also been made on economic restructuring. The agricultural sector has gained ground. The grain output in 2005 will top 480 billion kilogram, which is 10 billion kilogram higher than last year's yields.

Another 9 million people find jobs this year in urban areas. Farmers will have 11.5 percent more cash income per capita while urban residents will have 9.8 percent more disposable income per capita.

Reforms have finally been launched in some key areas after years' of consideration. The pilot program for a sweeping rural reform has kicked off. The reform on the RMB forming mechanism has been carried out. The reform on the split share structure in listed companies is going on smoothly. Important steps have been made for the reform of state-owned commercial banks. And new progress has also been made on boosting the non-public economy.

By People's Daily Online