China's economic and social development in 2012

BEIJING -- China's National Bureau of Statistics on Friday released a report on the country's economic and social development in 2012.

Xie Hongguang, deputy chief of the NBS, said the report highlights steady and relatively fast economic growth, the continuous optimization of the country's economic structure and progress in improving people's livelihood.

The following are some important figures on China's social and economic development in 2012:

-- China's gross domestic product expanded 7.8 percent year-on-year to 51.93 trillion yuan ($8.26 trillion).

-- China's consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, rose 2.6 percent year-on-year, below the government's target of 4 percent.

-- By the end of the year, 54 cities in a statistical pool of 70 major cities tracked by the NBS saw home prices rise month on month.

-- By the end of the year, 767.04 million people were employed in China, including 371 million people employed in cities.

-- A total of 12.66 million jobs were added in cities. The registered urban unemployment rate stood unchanged from the previous year at 4.1 percent.

-- The number of rural migrant workers had increased 3.9 percent to 262.61 million by the end of last year, accounting for 19.39 percent of the country's total population.

-- China's foreign reserves totaled $3.31 trillion by the end of the year, marking a year-on-year increase of $130.4 billion.

-- The Chinese currency, the yuan, strengthened 0.25 percent year-on-year to 6.2855 against the US dollar by the year's end.

-- China's fiscal revenues grew 12.8 percent year-on-year to 11.72 trillion yuan. Tax revenues contributed 10.06 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.1 percent year-on-year.

-- China's grain output rose 3.2 percent from a year earlier to 589.57 million tons, marking the ninth consecutive year of growth.

-- Grain crop areas in China totaled 111.27 million hectares, up 0.62 percent from a year earlier.

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