Guangdong remains China's No. 1 economic powerhouse in terms of GDP

GUANGZHOU, Jan. 26 (Chinese media) -- Guangdong Province

remains China's biggest economic powerhouse with last year's gross domestic

product nearing 3,570 billion yuan (about 521 billion U.S. dollars), or about

5,400 U.S. dollars per capita, the provincial bureau of statistics said

Saturday.

This is a 10.1-percent rise from the previous year,

1.1 percent higher than the 9 percent growth rate the provincial government

projected early last year, the bureau said in a press release.

Still, the actual growth was down 4.6 percentage

points from the previous year and 3.7 percent lower than the annual average

growth rate posted from 1979 to 2007, it said.

The bureau attributed the slowdown to the severe

natural disasters affecting most parts of China last year and the impact of the

global financial crisis.

Despite the setbacks, Guangdong had met its 2010 GDP

target of 3,440 billion yuan two years ahead of time, the bureau said. The 2010

target was set in 2006, at the start of the 11th Five-Year-Plan period.

Last year, the province's total fixed asset

investment climbed 16.5 percent to top 1,000 billion yuan, whereas consumption

soared 20.3 percent to 1,277.2 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Guangdong's foreign trade reached 683.3

billion U.S. dollars, up 7.8 percent year-on-year. Export totaled 400 billion

U.S. dollars, up 9.4 percent year-on-year.

Affected by the global financial crisis, the growth

rate of two-way trade was down by 12.4 percentage points, while that of export

was down by 12.8 percentage points.

Guangdong Province has taken the lead in China's

economic development for 20 consecutive years since 1989.