China's economy grew 10.2 per cent last year, instead of the previously announced 9.9 per cent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced yesterday with the difference in monetary terms amounting to nearly US$10 billion.

The bureau revised the 2005 gross domestic product from 18.2321 trillion yuan (US$2.279 trillion), as announced in January, to 18.3085 trillion yuan (US$2.289 trillion).

The difference was mainly contributed by manufacturing, mining and agriculture while growth in the services, or tertiary, industry was smaller than previously thought.

The service industry totalled some 7.339 trillion yuan (US$917.37 billion) in NBS' January report, but was revised to 7.296 trillion yuan (US$912 billion).

It made up nearly 39.9 per cent of the economy, instead of some 40 per cent as indicated by the January data.

In a similar revision of growth in 2004, announced at the end of last year, GDP was 16.8 per cent higher than earlier estimates, to notch up about US$2 trillion.

But the difference then was that services made up a whopping 93 per cent of the expanded growth.

The nation relies on the services industry to create jobs, especially in urban areas where the government wants to keep the jobless rate below 4.5 per cent.

Last year, the economy appeared more dependent on manufacturing, which made up 47.5 per cent of GDP with farming and affiliated operations contributing 12.6 per cent.

According to NBS' January data, in 2005, value-added output of the primary industry, which combines agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries, was 2.2718 trillion yuan (US$284 billion). The figure is now revised to 2.307 trillion yuan (US$288 billion).

The value-added output of the secondary industry, which includes mining, manufacturing, generation and supply of electricity, gas and water, and construction, was 8.6208 trillion yuan (US$1.078 trillion). The figure has risen to 8.7047 trillion yuan (US$1.088 trillion).

While announcing the revision of some of the general figures, the NBS did not mention when a final report of 2005 economic data would be published.

According to a new practice of measuring the economy, the NBS releases three reports each year the first, called preliminary account, the second, called preliminary confirmation, and the last, final account. Yesterday's report was preliminary confirmation.

From time to time, the central government's economic statistics can be markedly lower compared with the aggregate of figures released by regional governments.

However, according to Qiu Xiaohua, director of the NBS, the differences between the central government's data and those from the regional governments are not only caused by the latter's attempts to inflate their growth.

The differences, he said earlier, may also be caused by cross-region investments and supply-chain movements, by region-to-region price differentiations, by the weight of certain types of production in one region which may be insignificant at the national level.

(China Daily 08/31/2006 page1)