China contributed to 13.8 percent of the world economic growth during the 2003-05 period, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday.

The country is the second-largest contributor following the US, according to an NBS calculation based on World Bank statistics. The US contributed to 29.8 percent of world growth in the same period.

This shows China's increasing role in global economic growth as it has become a major engine of the world economy, the report said.

The Chinese economy has grown fast and improved people's living standards since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002, the report said.

Its gross domestic product (GDP) grew by an average of 10.4 percent during the 2003-06 period, much higher than the world average of 4.9 percent.

In 2006, China ranked 11th among all the 180 economies in terms of economic growth rate, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The country's high growth rate has led to its rapidly expanding economic scale, the report said. In 2006, China was the fourth-largest economy in terms of GDP, up from the sixth in 2002.

The proportion of its GDP to the world total rose from 4.4 percent in 2002 to 5.5 percent last year.

In 2002, China's GDP accounted for 13.9 percent of that of US; four years later, the ratio rose to 20 percent.

The booming Chinese economy has brought substantial benefits to people's lives, the report said.

China's per capita gross national income broke the $1,000 line in 2002 and reached $2,010 in 2006.

In 2006, urban residents' per capita disposable income rose 52.7 percent over 2002. Farmers' per capita net income increased by 27.1 percent during that period.

As a sign of their improved living standards, the Engel coefficient, or proportion of expenditure on food to total consumption, which is an international measure of living standards, dropped in both urban and rural regions, the report said.

Although China's coefficient remains much higher than that of developed countries, it is on the decline, dropping by 1.9 percentage points and 3.2 percentage points in 2006 over 2002 in the rural and urban regions respectively.

The output of major industrial and agricultural products has risen as a result of China's strong economic growth, the report said.

China was the largest producer of coal, cement and chemical fertilizer since 2003 and among the top world producers of steel, electricity, cloth and oil.

It was also the top producer of some major agricultural products, such as cereal, meat, cotton, peanut and fruit during that period. In 2005, China became the largest producer of tea.

The booming economy has attracted not only attention, but capital, from the world.

From 2003 to 2005, China attracted an inflow of $186.5 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI), the most among all developing economies. In 2005, China was in third place in terms of utilized FDI among all the economies.

China Daily

(China Daily 10/12/2007 page14)