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Minister: GDP growth to exceed 9% in 2005
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-12-19 14:11 HONG KONG, Dec 19 (Reuters) - China's economic
growth is on track to surpass 9 percent in 2005, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said
on Monday.
"This year's GDP will certainly be over 9 percent," Bo told reporters
following World Trade Organisation meetings in Hong Kong.
The National Development and Reform Commission said last month that gross
domestic product (GDP) would grow about 9.3 percent for all 2005, compared with
9.4 percent growth in the first three quarters of the year.
Although China's economy continued to grow, the country remained "a
through-and-through developing country" and deserved to be treated the same as
other poor countries in the contentious trade talks, Bo said.
On Sunday, the 149 member countries of the WTO saved the long-running talks
from collapse with an interim deal to end farm export subsidies by 2013 and open
rich nation markets a bit wider to the poorest nations.
Bo said that under the deal, "China's weak agricultural products can win
protection", referring to a formula in the agreement that allows developing
countries to nominate three percent of agricultural product lines for "special
protection".
While China's economy is growing rapidly, it continues to have a relatively
low per-capita GDP and millions of Chinese live on a dollar a day.
China's National Bureau of Statistics is expected to announce on Tuesday a
revised figure for its 2004 GDP, based on a comprehensive economic census it has
just completed.
A government source told Reuters on Friday the change was expected to show
the Chinese economy in 2004 was actually 16.8 percent larger than previously
recorded.
China's GDP totalled $1.65 trillion in 2004, current data shows, meaning the
revision could bring its size for that year to about $1.93 trillion, while per
capita GDP would increase to about $1,500 from the current $1,268.
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