Fixed asset investment

China's fixed asset investment totaled 10.987 trillion yuan (US$1.41 trillion) in 2006, up 24 percent year on year, or two percentage points lower than the same period a year earlier.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Thursday, fixed asset investment in urban areas grew 24.5 percent to 9.347 trillion yuan, down 2.7 percentage points from the previous year, while that of the rural areas surged 21.3 percent.

Fixed asset investment in central China grew 33.1 percent, while eastern and western regions were respectively up 20.6 percent and 25.9 percent.

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

Value-added industrial output

Value-added output of all industrial enterprises in China grew 12.5 percent year-on-year in 2006, the bureau said.

Major enterprises, each with an annual sales volume of at least five million yuan (US$641,025 billion), posted a growth of 16.6 percent in value-added industrial output from the year-earlier level, the bureau said.

Of the major enterprises, heavy industrial enterprises had their value-added output increase by 17.9 percent, and light industrial ones' value-added output, up 13.8 percent.

Last year, the major industrial enterprises realized a sales-against-production ratio of 98.1 percent and garnered 1,878.4 billion yuan (US$240.8 billion) in combined profits, up 31.0 percent from the year-earlier level, the bureau added.

Retail sales of consumer goods

China's retail sales rose 13.7 percent to 7.641 trillion yuan (US$979.62 billion) in 2006, 0.8 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Sales hit 749.9 billion yuan in December last year, up 14.6 percent year-on-year.

Retail sales rose 14.3 percent in urban areas and 12.6 percent in rural areas last year.

Wholesale and retail sectors rose 13.7 percent, while catering and hotel figures were up 16.4 percent.

Communications sector sales grew 22.0 percent, oil and oil products were up 36.2 percent, and automobiles up 26.3 percent.

Consumer Price Index

China's consumer price index (CPI) grew by 1.5 percent in 2006 over the previous year, 0.3 percentage points lower than the previous year, according to NBS.

CPI for last December rose by 2.8 percent over the corresponding month of 2005, according to NBS.

NBS figures show that CPI for urban and rural areas both moved up by 1.5 percent year-on-year.

Consumer goods price rose 1.4 percent and the food price by 2.3 percent year-on-year, respectively. The grain price went up by 2.7 percent.

2006's retail price rose by 1.0 percent year-on-year and the increase rate was 0.2 percentage points higher than that for 2005.

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.

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