Ｃｏｎｓｕｍｐｔｉｏｎ，Ｎｅｗ Ｐｒｏｔａｇｏｎｉｓｔ ｉｎ ２００７ ＧＤＰ

Ｇｕｏ　ｙａｎ

Not long ago, the NationalBureau of Statistics releasedits 2007 Macro EconomyIndex. Social consumptionretail sales reached RMB 8.9 billion,increased by 16.8 percent over the pre-vious year, or 3.1 percentage pointshigher; the whole investment in socialfixed assets was valued RMB 13.7 bil-lion, a year-on-year increase of 24.8percent, that is 0.9 percentage pointshigher; and trade surplus amounted toRMB 24.7 billion, rising by 47.7 percentcompared with the same period lastyear, 26.3 percentage points falling overthe increasing speed last year. Accord-ing to preliminary estimates, GDP forthe year was RMB 24.67 trillion, up by11.4 percent from the previous year, rep-resenting the fifth consecutive year ofover 10 percent growth. The report alsoshows the breakdown of GDP into a 2.7percent growth in exports, a 4.3 percentincrease in investments, and a 4.4 per-cent increase in consumption. As GDPreached a 13-year record high in 2007,it is the first time that consumption ac-counted for the biggest percentage ofgrowth in seven years.