OREANDA-NEWS. March 01, 2012. China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on released the country's 2011 statistics report.
 
Xie Hongguang, the NBS deputy chief, said findings in the report showed China has realized steady and relatively fast growth amid the stumbling global economy.
 
The following are some key figures on China's social and economic development in 2011:
 
GDP -- China's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 9.2 %year-on-year to 47.16 trillion yuan (about 7.49 trillion U.S. dollars) last year, down from the 10.3 %growth in 2010.
 
In the fourth quarter, GDP growth decelerated to 8.9 %year-on-year from 9.1 %in the third quarter, posting the slowest quarterly rate in 10 quarters.
 
Inflation -- China's consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, rose 5.4 %year-on-year in 2011, exceeding the government's full-year target of 4 %as food prices jumped 11.8 %and farm produce prices surged 16.5 percent.
 
Home prices -- More areas in a statistical pool of 70 major cities have seen month-on-month price drops in 2011.
 
In December last year, 52 cities out of the pool experienced declines in new home prices on a monthly basis.
 
Employment -- Altogether, 12.21 million jobs were added in urban China in 2011. The urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent, unchanged from 2010. By the end of 2011, China had 764.2 million people in employment, 359.14 million of whom work in urban areas.
 
The population of migrant workers last year reached 252.78 million, an increase of 4.4 %from the 2010 level. In breakdown, the number of rural workers employed outside their hometowns rose 3.4 %from 2010 to top 158.63 million while the number of those employed in their hometowns rose 5.9 %to 94.15 million.
 
Foreign reserves -- China's foreign reserves totaled 3.18 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of 2011, an increase of 11.7 %from a year earlier.
 
The Chinese currency Renminbi, or the yuan, strengthened 5.1 %in 2011 to 6.3009 against the U.S. dollar by the year-end.
 
Fiscal revenue -- China's fiscal revenues grew 24.8 %year-on-year to 10.37 trillion yuan in 2011, among which tax revenues totaled 8.97 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.6 %year-on-year.
 
Grain production -- China's grain output rose 4.5 %year-on-year to 571.21 million tonnes in 2011, marking the eighth consecutive year of growth for China's grain output.
 
Summer grain and early rice production increased 2.5 %and 4.5 percent, respectively, at 126.27 million tonnes and 32.76 million tonnes, while autumn grain output added 5.1 %to 412.18 million tonnes.
 
Grain crop areas expanded 0.6 %from 2010 to 110.57 million hectares in 2011.
 
Industrial production -- China's industrial value-added output rose 13.9 %year-on-year in 2011, down 1.8 percentage points from the growth rate of 2010.
 
Investment -- China's fixed-asset investments (including farmers' investments) rose 23.6 %year-on-year to 31.1 trillion yuan in 2011.After deducting the factor of prices, the country's fixed-asset investment was up 15.9 %from a year earlier.
 
Excluding farmers' investments, the growth rate is 23.8 percent.
 
Investment in real estate development surged 27.9 %to 6.17 trillion yuan.
 
Retail sales -- China's retail sales for consumer goods rose 17.1 %year-on-year to 18.39 trillion yuan in 2011.
 
After deducting the factor of prices, the growth rate was 11.6 percent.
 
Retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas grew 17.2 %to 15.96 trillion yuan, while the figure in rural areas surged 16.7 %to 2.44 trillion yuan.
 
Foreign trade -- China's foreign trade jumped 22.5 %year-on-year to 3.64 trillion U.S. dollars in 2011. Its trade surplus narrowed 14.4 %to 155.1 billion U.S. dollars.
 
Exports grew 20.3 %to 1.9 trillion U.S. dollars in 2011, while imports surged 24.9 %to 1.74 trillion U.S. dollars.
 
Money supply -- China's broad money supply (M2), which covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 13.6 %from a year earlier to 85.2 trillion yuan in 2011.
 
The narrow measure of money supply (M1), cash in circulation plus in current corporate deposits, climbed 7.9 %to 29 trillion yuan.
 
National population -- Preliminary statistics showed China had 1.347 billion people by the end of 2011.
 
The number of urban dwellers hit 690.79 million as of the end of 2011, accounting for 51.27 %of the country's total population, exceeding the number of rural residents for the first time.
 
Income -- The per capita income of China's urban residents grew 8.4 %year-on-year to 21,810 yuan in 2011, while the income of rural residents rose 11.4 %to 6,977 yuan. The numbers were calculated after deducting the factor of prices.
 
China moved last year to raise its poverty threshold to 2,300 yuan in terms of the annual net income of farmers, up over 80 %from the 1,274 yuan standard in 2010.
 
The lift made 122.38 million people in rural areas eligible for government anti-poverty subsidies.