BEIJING, July 20 (Xinhuanet) -- China's economy continued a stable and rapid growth in the first half of this year, with the gross domestic product (GDP) during the period increasing 9.5 percent year on year to 6,742.2 billion yuan (812.3 billion US dollars).

    "It was 0.2 percentage points lower than the growth rate for the same period of last year," said Zheng Jingping, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), at a press conference here on Wednesday.

    The average GDP growth rate in the past 27 years is about 9.4 percent, according to Zheng.

    "Fairly good overall economic performance was recorded in the first half of this year, " said Zheng, attributing the achievement to efforts made by regions and departments at all levels as well as the macro-control policy.

    In breakdown, the primary industry reported a value added of 670.7 billion yuan, up 5.0 percent; the secondary industry, 3, 963.5 billion yuan, up by 11.2 percent; and the tertiary industry,2,108.0 billion yuan, up by 7.8 percent, according to the NBS.

    "The high rate of bank savings, investment, robust market demand and abundant labor forces guarantee the rapid development of Chinese economy," Zheng said when answering a question from the press.

    The solution of unemployment and poverty problems needs rapid economic growth, but the unsustainable economic growth with high-speed is not China's goal, he said.

    According to NBS figures, the overheating fixed asset investment has cooled down due to strict control policies by the government.

    In the first six months of this year, the fixed assets investment reached 3.2895 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.4 percent, 3.2 percentage points lower than the same period of last year,

    "The scale of the fixed asset investment is still a bit large,"said Zheng when answering a question from the press.

    The central government will continue its control policy already promulgated to curb the fast rising housing price, and the real estate industry in the country will still maintain a rapid and stable growth rate in the latter half of this year, said he.

    Consumer price index (CPI) in the first half of this year rose by 2.3 percent, lower than the 3.6-percent level for the same period of last year, NBS figures show.

    The CPI, an important index for inflation, rose by 1.9 percent in cities and 2.9 percent in rural areas, Zheng said.

    In terms of commodity categories, food price rose by 4.4 percent, housing price grew by 5.7 percent, and the prices for recreation, education and culture products and services rose by 2.7 percent, according to NBS figures.

    "The growth rate of consumer prices slowed down steadily with the monthly CPI growth standing at 1.8 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively, in April, May and June," he said.

    The producer prices for industrial products, however, still grew fast with an increase rate of 5.6 percent year-on-year, and the purchase price for raw materials, fuel and power rose by 9.9 percent.

    The disposable income per capita of China's urban residents reached 5,374 yuan in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 9.5 percent.

    The per capital cash income of farmers had a real increase of 12.5 percent to 1,586 yuan for the first half year, up 1.6 and 0.8 percentage points, respectively, from a year earlier.

    In the first half of this year, China's foreign trade volume reached 645 billion US dollars, up 23.2 percent, with a surplus of 39.6 billion US dollars.

    China will continue to have a trade surplus as more than half of its foreign trade is done through export processing, said Zheng.

    Of all the export processing businesses, foreign-invested companies account for as much as 50 percent to 57 percent, he said.

    "The above statistics show that the national economy continued to develop in the expected direction of macro-regulation and control." Enditem