3rd ld: China's GDP expands 8.7 pct in 2009

BEIJING, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's economy expanded 8.7 percent in 2009 from a year earlier, exceeding the government's annual growth target of 8 percent, according to the official data.

Gross domestic product (GDP) reached 33.54 trillion yuan (4.91 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2009, Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told a press conference Thursday.

China's economy rose 10.7 percent year on year in the fourth quarter. This compared with 6.2 percent growth in the first quarter, 7.9 percent in the second, and 9.1 percent in the third.

Zhuang Jian, senior economist of the Asian Development Bank, said the fourth quarter growth rate was higher than previous market expectations, with most economists expecting an increase of 10 percent year on year.

"The accelerating GDP growth in the fourth quarter was due to a low basis of the same period in 2008, when the quarterly GDP expanded 6.8 percent from a year earlier, also indicating that the country's economy is on a strong rebound," Zhuang said.

Zhu Baoliang, chief economist of the State Information Center, told Xinhua: "The GDP growth last year was far better than expected, which is a solid foundation for sustainable economic development in 2010."

According to the NBS, in 2009, the value-added of the primary sector topped 3.55 trillion yuan, up 4.2 percent from a year earlier; that of the industrial sector stood at rolex fake 15.7 trillion yuan, up 9.5 percent year on year; and the tertiary sector, services, reported value-added totaling 14.29 trillion yuan, up 8.9 percent.

"Last year was the most difficult for the economy in the new century," said Ma Jiantang. "Thanks to government efforts to deal with difficulties, the economy ended an accelerating slide and began to recover."

Ma attributed the recovery mainly to the implementation of the proactive fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy, as well as the government stimulus package to cope with the global financial crisis.

He described the country's economic development last year as a "harvest," saying the newly released figures confirmed a V-shaped recovery.

Since November 2008, the government has adopted a series of stimulus measures, including a 4-trillion yuan stimulus package, tax cuts, and consumer subsidies to shore up growth and employment.

An important component of the stimulus package was the revitalization scheme for 10 major industries, including steel, car making, textiles and machinery, to which the government devoted huge investment.

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It also put forward preferential policies to encourage sales of home appliances, cars and motorbikes in rural areas. More government investment came to infrastructure, scientific research and public services.

Meanwhile, the government shifted from a tight monetary policy in 2008 to the moderately easy monetary policy in 2009 to help the national economy counter adverse impacts of the financial crisis.

Figures from the People's Bank of China, the central bank, showed new yuan-denominated lending last year hit a record 9.59 trillion yuan, almost double that of the previous year.

The value-added of industry rose 11 percent in 2009 from a year earlier. Retail sales rose 16.9 percent year on year, while f
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