Xie Fuzhan, Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics of China briefs the media on China's economy in 2006 at a press conference hosted by the State Council Information Office on January 25, 2007. [china.com.cn]

BEIJING -- Preliminary estimation shows China's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 20.9407 trillion yuan (US$2.7 trillion) in 2006, up 10.7 percent year on year, according to latest figures provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Thursday.

The growth was 0.3 percentage point higher than that in 2005. China recently revised its GDP growth in 2005 to the final figure of 10.4 percent, higher than the original 9.9 percent.

China's GDP growth was 10.4 percent, 11.5 percent, 10.6 percent and 10.4 percent from the first to fourth quarter of 2006, said Xie Fuzhan, commissioner of the NBS at a press conference.

According to previous figures released by the NBS, China's GDP grew 10.3 percent, 11.3 percent and 10.4 percent in the first, second and third quarter, so possibilities exist for the rate in fourth quarter to be revised to a higher level.

The Chinese government timely took a series of macro-control policies last year, effectively preventing the economy from going fast into overheated, Xie said.

China's primary, secondary and tertiary sectors posted a respective 2.47 trillion, 10.2004 trillion and 8.27 trillion yuan in added value, with the secondary sector, including industry, manufacturing and mining, growing at the fastest pace -- 12.5 percent -- last year, according to Xie.

China's consumer price index (CPI), a major inflation index, grew by 1.5 percent in 2006.

Housing prices in the country's 70 medium-sized and large cities went up by 5.5 percent in 2006 over the previous year and the increase rate was 2.1 percentage points lower than that for 2005.

Investment in property development reached 1.938 trillion yuan, up 21.8 percent, or 0.9 percentage points higher than the previous year.

China's fixed asset investment totaled 10.987 trillion yuan in 2006, up 24 percent year on year, or two percentage points lower than the same period a year earlier.

Chinese urban and rural residents all see their per capita disposable income record a double-digit growth in 2006, faster than the previous year, Xie said.

Urban residents in China earned 11,759 yuan in per-capita disposable income last year, up 12.1 percent from the year earlier.

Last year, rural residents in China had their per-capita income increase by 10.2 percent to 3,587 yuan.

The registered urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent by the end of 2006, 0.1 percentage points down from the year-end of 2005.

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