China revises 2008 growth figures of 9.6%

China has revised its economic growth figures for 2008 to 9.6 percent. The better-than-expected result is part of new figures from the second national economic census, which was released on Friday in Beijing.

The National Bureau of Statistics raised its figures for China's Gross Domestic Product for 2008 to around 31.4-trillion yuan, up from the preliminary figure of 30 trillion yuan.

The original data reported 9 percent economic growth, year-on-year, for 2008. The data now supports a figure of 9.6 percent.

Peng Zhilong, Director of NBS National Accounts Department, said, "The main impact of using the new data will be seen in the overall GDP total, but not the speed of growth."

National energy consumption totaled an equivalent of 2.9 billion tons of standard coal, up more than 2 percent from the previous figures. But the consumption per unit of GDP has come down.

Ma Jiantangm Director of National Bureau of Statistics, said, "Energy consumption per unit of GDP in 2008 was down 5.2-percent from the previous year, and down 12-percent from 2005."

Census results also show that by the end of last year, over 7 million legal entities had engaged in second and tertiary industries across China. Compared with the first census from 2004, that figure increased by more that 37 percent.

In terms of business assets, state-owned enterprises make up 23 percent, share-holding corporations nearly 29 percent, and privately owned companies over 12 percent.

Between 2004 and 2008, the number of private enterprises increased by over 80 percent. The number of State-owned enterprises dropped 20 percent during the same period.

Ma said, "Generally speaking, there is no evidence of State-owned economy advances or private economy retreats, according to the data. The private economy witnessed strong momentum in the past few years."

However, Ma acknowledged the phenomenon does not pertain to some cases. And he urged further reforms of monopolized industries and a restructuring of the state-owned economy.