Local GDP growth slows

Almost all provinces and municipalities in China saw a decline in their gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first half year of this year, revealing a dominant trend of slowdown in the country's economy, the Legal Mirror reported.

By Sunday, a total of 31 provinces and municipalities have released their economic data for the first half year. Except Gansu Province, all the other 30 provinces and municipalities reported year-on-year decline in their GDP growth for the first half year, the newspaper said.

Tibet Autonomous Region has seen the biggest drop in growth, plummeting from 16.5 percent a year ago to 11.3 percent in the first half.

Liaoning, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia have also seen major drops in their growth rates, by over 3 percentage points.

Statistics showed that 13 provinces have seen an average 2 percentage points decline in GDP growth in the first half year compared with the same period of last year.

The national economy also slowed down in the first half. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the year-on-year GDP growth was 7.8 percent in the first half of 2012, down from 9.6 percent a year ago.

The authority has set China's GDP growth target at 7.5 percent this year.

China's central and western regions saw a higher growth compared with their eastern counterparts.

Nine out of 10 provinces and municipalities which reported growth of 12 percent or above are located in the western region.

Among the cities, Tianjin recorded the fastest economic growth, with an increase of 11.4 percent, closely followed by Chongqing and Guizhou.

Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces saw their growth fall below the national average.

Xing Zhihong, spokesman of the NBS, told the Legal Mirror that a slower economic growth in Beijing was caused by a series of macro-control measures, including limiting home and car purchases and the relocation of Beijing Steel Corporation.

Guangdong's GDP hit 2.6 trillion yuan ($409 billion), the highest among the provinces. Jiangsu and Shandong provinces ranked the second and third.

The economic situation is grim and the slowdown remains the dominant trend of China's economy, said Tian Yun, an expert at the China Macro Economics Institute.

"Investment on infrastructure in the central and western regions has boosted the local economy greatly, while for the eastern regions, which greatly rely on exports, shrinking orders from the western countries, rising prices of the raw materials and human resources have hurt the growth," Tian told the Global Times.

Tian called on the government to deepen economic reforms.