China's economy grows 7.7% in 2013

BEIJING - China's economy grew 7.7 percent year on year in 2013, the same as 2012 and beating the government's target of 7.5 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.

Last year, gross domestic product (GDP) reached 56.88 trillion yuan ($9.31 trillion).

The economy's fourth-quarter growth also stood at 7.7 percent.

"China's economic performance stabilized in 2013," said Ma Jiantang, director of the NBS at a press conference, citing encouraging GDP and job data as well as subdued inflation.

The Chinese government defined the "upper and lower limits" of the reasonable range of economic performance in 2013. With a GDP growth rate of 7.5 percent, the "lower limit" is intended to ensure steady expansion and employment, and with the consumer price index at around 3.5 percent, the "upper limit" is meant to prevent inflation.

Figures showed that China created more than 10 million new jobs in 2013 and inflation came in at 2.6 percent for the whole year.

He Keng	This is within our expectation, only a matter of 0.1 percent more or less. Judging from economic statistics from previous months, China's economy has been stable all along. I said in June and July that we can definitely accomplish a GDP of 7.5 percent, so the result now - 7.7 percent – is very reasonable. China's economy this year will see better growth than last year.>>>
Li Daxiao	Basically, the newly released GDP data has matched expectations. The GDP maintained stabilization during the second half of 2013 and did not experience a large decline in the fourth quarter. This situation has created a good foundation for the stable development of China's economy in 2014, and the stable growth will continue throughout the year.>>>
Zhu Baoliang	The GDP growth of 2013 is within expectations. We expect China's GDP to grow 7.5 percent in 2014, as industrial updating, industrialovercapacity, the property market, andlocal government debts will all have their impacts on the country's economic development. >>>