Jan. 24, 2008 (China Knowledge) - China saw industrial output surged 18.5% in 2007, up 1.9 percentage points from the previous year, according to Xie Fuzhan, director of the National Bureau of Statistics on Thursday.

 

Xie disclosed that output of state-owned enterprises and organizations in which the state holds controlling stakes expanded 13.8% year-on-year, and that of foreign-funded as well as Hong Kong-, Macao- and Taiwan-invested businesses increased 17.5% over 2006. The production and sales rate of big-scale enterprises reached 98.1%.

Meanwhile, the heavy and light industry enjoyed an increment of 19.6% and 16.3%, respectively.

Statistics also showed that the industrial output growth had slowed down since the government adopted the tightening measures in September.

From January to November, China's enterprises above the designated size exceeded RMB 2.295 trillion in profits, 36.7% more than in 2006, up 6% from a year earlier.

Both industrial output and gross domestic product (GDP) would grew more slowly this year amid the U.S. sub-prime crisis and an expected slowdown of the U.S. consumption demand, said Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council.