GRAINS APLENTY: A bumper grain harvest this summer has boosted the country’s agricultural production. This photo shows farmers in Taierzhuang, Shandong Province, harvesting wheat

China's economy withstood disruptions to its agricultural sector caused by snow storms at the beginning of this year and the Sichuan earthquake in May and posted economic growth of 10.4 percent for the first six months, the government said.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that China's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled 13.06 trillion yuan ($1.91 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 10.4 percent in terms of comparative prices. Although GDP growth dropped 1.8 percentage points compared with the same period last year, it exceeded the government's target of 8 percent set earlier this year.

"The national economy moved toward the expected direction set out by the macro-control policies and maintained the momentum of steady and fairly fast growth," said NBS spokesperson Li Xiaochao at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on July 17 in Beijing.

Zhang Xiaojing, Director of the Macro Economics Research Office in the Economic Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told Beijing Review that 10.4 percent was "still a comparatively high growth rate."

NBS statistics indicate that in the first half of this year, overall agricultural production was good with a bumper harvest in early summer crops. Preliminary estimates show that the total output of summer grains reached 120.41 million tons, an increase of 3.04 million tons, or 2.6 percent, over last year, marking the fifth consecutive rise in summer grains.

The country's meat output totaled 31.92 million tons in the first half, up 4.8 percent compared with the same period last year. In particular, the number of pigs in stock rose 5 percent, while that of slaughtered pigs grew 3.7 percent. Because hikes in the price of pork have been the main reason for inflation in China during the last two years, the increasing pork supply is expected to play an active role in curbing food price increase.

Not just food

Also in the first half of this year, fixed-asset investments increased rapidly. From January to June, China's investment in fixed assets totaled 6.84 trillion yuan ($1 trillion), an increase of 26.3 percent year on year, or 0.4 percentage points higher than the growth rate during the same period last year, said Li Xiaochao.