By Xin Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-11 07:44

GDP growth for last year was actually 11.9 percent, half a percentage point higher than the previously stated 11.4 percent, according to the latest official data.

The adjustment was made after the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) updated its calculation, but the new figure is subject to further verification, the bureau said in a statement.

The new figure represents China's fastest economic growth since 1994 and has sparked concerns the economy is overheating.

The increased GDP volume was mainly driven by services industry growth. The bureau's statement in February said services industry output increased 11.4 percent year-on-year, accounting for 39.1 percent of overall GDP growth. The updated rate is 12.6 percent, accounting for 40.1 percent of total GDP growth.

The growth rates and proportion contributed by agriculture and industry have remained largely unchanged, according to the statement.

The economy expanded by a blistering 11.9 percent in the second quarter last year and the consumer price index, the bellwether of inflation, has been climbing since the second half of last year. Policymakers vowed in December to keep the monetary policy tight this year to prevent economic overheating and keep rising prices from evolving into entrenched inflation.

"People had talked about economic overheating when the growth was thought to be 11.4 percent. The new figure reinforces that viewpoint," Hu Shaowei, senior economist at the State Information Center, said.

But he said the new rate doesn't mean policymakers will further strengthen the already tight monetary policy this year given the uncertainties in world economic growth. "It would have little impact on current policymaking because the main focus is the future development trend."

The NBS also said China's final GDP growth rate in 2006 was 11.6 percent, up from the previously released figure of 11.1 percent.

Services growth contributed to the adjustment, up 12.1 percent from the previous 10.8 percent.

China normally revises its annual GDP figures twice after their initial release. While the 2007 figures released Thursday could change later, the 2006 statistics are final.