China's economy grows sizzling 9.4 percent in first three quarters

China's economy grew a blistering 9.4 percent in the first three quarters of 2005 as investment surged and the trade surplus widened, the government announced Thursday.

Gross domestic product for China in the January-September period reached 10.6 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion; euro1 trillion), the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement. The growth rate, which compares China's GDP to the same period a year ago, is close to economists' expectations of about 9.3 percent growth.

The government expressed concern, however, that there were still problems in the "oversized and irrational structure in investment in fixed assets, noticeable foreign trade imbalance and much slowed increase in profits in some industrial sectors." Total investment in fixed assets shot up 26.1 percent in the first nine months of the year to 5.7 trillion yuan (US$700 billion; Ђ600 billion), the statement said.

Exports shot up 31.3 percent to US$546.4 billion (Ђ455.2 billion) and imports rose 16 percent to US$478.1 billion (Ђ398.3 billion) resulting in a trade surplus of US$68.3 billion (Ђ56.9 billion), it said. The statement also said that Chinese farmers' incomes weren't growing fast enough, the AP reports.

A.M.