Guangdong Province, an economic engine in south China, managed to cool down its fixed-asset investment with a moderately rapid GDP (gross domestic product) growth in the first three quarters this year, thanks to its macro-economic control measures.

Guangdong realized 1,113 billion yuan (134 billion US dollars) in GDP for the nine-month period, a year-on-year growth of 14.8 percent, according to the provincial statistical bureau.

The total included 74.96 billion yuan (about 9 billion US dollars) in value-added output for the primary sector, up 5 percent year-on-year; 627.87 billion yuan (75.7 billion US dollars) for the secondary sector, a rise of 19.4 percent; and 410.17 billion yuan (49.4 billion US dollars) for the tertiary sector, an increase of 10.1 percent.

Ye Jianfu, deputy director of the provincial statistical bureau, noted that growth in Guangdong's fixed-assets investment has slowed down. The province pumped 381.9 billion yuan (some 46 billion US dollars) in fixed assets between January and September, up 25.6 percent over the same period a year earlier. But the growth rate was 15.2 percentage points lower than the first-quarter level or four percentage points lower than the year-earlier level, Ye added.

Moreover, Ye predicted the province's GDP growth would reach 14.5 percent or so for the whole of 2004.

Editor: Olivia