Li Xiaochao, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, reveals data about China's economic performance in the first six months this year in Beijing at a press conference July 19, 2007. [china.org.cn]

China's economy expanded 11.5 percent in the first half of this year, up 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said this morning.

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The economic growth of the second quarter of 2007 was 0.8 percentage points higher than the blistering 11.1 percent of the three months to March, NBS spokesman Li Xiaochao told a press conference held by the State Council Information Office in Beijing.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) totalled 10,678.8 billion yuan (US$1,405 billion) in the first six months of this year, he said.

The primary, secondary and tertiary sectors reported 947 billion, 5.55 trillion and 4.18 trillion yuan in added value in the first half, with the secondary sector, including manufacturing, mining and construction, growing at the fastest year-on-year rate of 13.6 percent.

The primary sector posted a growth rate of 4.0 percent and the tertiary sector, including transport, telecommunications, catering, tourism, banking and insurance, recorded an increase of 10.6 percent

The boom was driven by rising levels of foreign investment and import and export industry, and also by increasing domestic consumption, he said.

"In the first half of 2007, the central government adopted a series of macro-control policies aimed at the outstanding contradictions and problems existing in economic performance, resulting in a steady and fast economic growth," Li said.

This is featured as rapid economic growth, improved efficiency, harmonized structure and more substantial benefits to the masses, he said.

China's consumer price index (CPI) rose 4.4 percent in June compared with a year ago, Li said, and that for the first half of this year increased 3.2 percent year on year.

Fixed-asset investment in urban areas soared 26.7 percent in the first half from a year earlier, up from 24.5 percent growth in the whole of last year, indicated the bureau statistics.

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