Growth in China's investment, consumption, and net exports slowed in 2011, but remained stable and relatively rapid. Growth in domestic demand, driven by investment and consumption, gained momentum last year.
According to the statistical bulletin, China's total fixed-asset investment reached over 31.1 trillion yuan in 2011, up nearly 24 percent from the previous year.
Meanwhile, the country's total retail sales of consumer goods rose 17 percent year-on-year to nearly 18.4 trillion yuan, and total imports and exports reached over 3.6 trillion U.S. dollars, with imports rising 25 percent to over 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars and exports rising 20 percent to nearly 1.9 trillion U.S. dollars.
This led to a trade surplus of 155.1 billion U.S. dollars last year, a reduction of 26.4 billion U.S. dollars from the previous year.
From the perspective of national economic accounting, investment and consumption made greater contributions to national economic growth in 2011 than before, contributing to nearly 106 percent and 52 percent, respectively, to the country's economic growth.
Consumption's contribution rate increased 10.1 percentage points from that of 2010.Last year, gross capital formation contributed to over 54 percent of economic growth, up 1.4 percentage points from 2010.
China's trade surplus continued its downward trend of 2010, and declined 26.4 billion U.S. dollars last year. The enhancement of the endogenous driving force for China's economic growth and decline of external dependence have helped strike a balance between internal and external demand.
In the manufacturing sector, the added value of high-tech manufacturing companies rose nearly 17 percent in 2011 from the previous year, and the added value of major manufacturing companies rose 2.6 percentage points year-on-year. Meanwhile, the added value of six high energy-consuming industries and small and medium-sized manufacturing companies rose over 12 percent and nearly 2 percent, respectively, from the previous year.
In terms of regional development, the country's central and western regions posted faster industrial and investment growth than eastern regions in 2011.
The industrial production growth rate of central and western regions was 6.5 percentage points and 5.2 percentage points, respectively, higher than that of eastern regions.
The growth rate of fixed-asset investment (excluding investment by farmers) in central and western regions was 7.5 percentage points and 7.9 percentage points, respectively, higher than that of eastern regions.