Friday, January 4, 2008

China Reports Economic Output Forecast

China's Economic Output Per Person Forecast to Reach $3,000 by 2010.

China's rapid growth should boost annual output per person to $3,000 by 2010, nearly 3 1/2 times its level of a decade earlier, according to a government report cited Friday by an official news agency.

The estimate by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, or CASS, shows the country quadrupling year 2000 output levels earlier than expected. The official goal was to quadruple per capita gross domestic product by 2020. China's economy has expanded by more than 10 percent in each of the past five years, and 2007 growth is expected to top 11 percent once final figures are compiled.

The CASS report said economic output per person should reach $6,000 by 2020 if China maintains its current growth rate, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The report gave no figures in China's currency, the yuan. CASS would not provide a copy of the report when contacted by telephone.

The yuan has been rising against the U.S. dollar, which would raise China's economic output when measured in dollar terms. China wants continued rapid growth to reduce poverty, but it is also trying to restrain an investment boom in real estate and some other industries that leaders worry could ignite a financial crisis.

The government is promising to spread the country's prosperity to hundreds of millions who have been left behind by its three-decade-old boom. Large eastern cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already surpassed the national per-person income level forecast by CASS for 2010. CASS said rural incomes rose by an estimated 8 percent last year, the fastest rate in 11 years, although this lagged behind the growth rate in cities by five percentage points.

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