With double-digit GDP growth, moderate increases in industrial output and fixed-assets investment, low inflation and unemployment rates, Beijing's economy showed stable and quality growth in the first half, a municipal statistics official said yesterday.

The capital had a total GDP of 406.43 billion yuan in the first six months, a year-on-year increase of 12.1 percent, which is 0.2 percent higher than the first quarter, said Yu Xiuqin, spokeswoman of the Beijing municipal bureau of statistics.

The blistering growth is even 0.6 percent higher than the national average in the first half, showed figures that were also released yesterday.

Unlike the national average growth in GDP of 11.5 percent, which Yu described as "very out of her anticipation", Yu put Beijing's economic performance as "sound, rapid and good in quality".

Beijing's consumer price index (CPI) saw a year-on-year increase of only 0.8 percent in the first half, much lower than the national increase of 3.2 percent.

Soaring home and food prices nationwide, especially for meat and eggs, is widely believed to have inflated the CPI.

Yu explained the lower increase in Beijing is due to a much smaller "Engel's coefficient" - an accepted economic axiom that says that as incomes increase, the proportion of income spent on food falls. She also noted a steep decline in prices in other categories like home appliances, medical care, transportation, telecommunications, entertainment and education, which also contribute to the CPI.

The city has posted double-digit GDP growth for nine consecutive years, which shows its sustainability, she said.

Beijing's industrial structure has also seen vital changes, with the service sector now accounting for more than 70 percent of incremental industrial value, a percentage that reaches the level of developed countries, she said.

(China Daily 07/20/2007 page14)