China's gross domestic product grew 9.5 per cent in 2003, the National Bureau of Statistics said today as it issued a second upward revision for that year.
Late last year the bureau adjusted the 2003 growth figure to 9.3 per cent from the initial estimate, 9.1 per cent.
The data on the bureau's website (www.stats.gov.cn) showed China's gross domestic product had reached 11.74 trillion yuan ($1.42 trillion) in 2003, up 9.5 per cent from the previous year, when growth was 8.0 per cent.
Like other countries, China adjusts its GDP growth figures to remove the effect of inflation.
The bureau described the latest estimate as "final". Answering scepticism about its economic data, China began last year revising growth numbers to make them more reliable and transparent.
In the first quarter of 2005 the economy was 9.5 per cent larger than a year earlier, the bureau said last month.
Full-year GDP for 2004 also showed growth of 9.5 per cent. China has taken steps since mid-2003 to cool the economy, including ordering banks to curb lending to sectors such as property and steel and restrict land supplies.
