High quality also highlighted the economic growth. While fiscal revenues increased 27.6 percent, the profit of state-owned and non-public enterprises with annual sales exceeding 5 million yuan ($730,000) jumped 81.6 percent between January and May. The per-capita disposable income for urban residents rose 10.2 percent, while the real income for rural residents went up 12.6 percent.

Measures aimed to curb red-hot housing prices have also taken effect. Housing prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities slowed down in growth in June, down 1 percentage point from May. Measures taken to cut emissions and energy consumption have also kicked in. Both emissions and energy consumption have dropped significantly in energy-depleting industries since the second quarter.

Industrial performance

The industrial sector has continued the recovery trend, said Zhu Hongren, spokesman for the Ministry of Technology and Information Industry (MTII).

Industrial output grew steadily in the first half, while the gap between the growth of light and heavy industries narrowed month-by-month, and the growth of energy-depleting industries slowed down.

MTII statistics said the industrial value-added of state-owned and non-public enterprises with annual sales exceeding 5 million yuan ($730,000) rose 17.6 percent year-on-year, 10.6 percentage points higher than the same period last year. The industrial value-added of light and heavy industries went up by 13.6 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively, while the gap between the growth rates narrowed from 9.2 percentage points in January and February to 2.5 percentage points in June. Growth of steel, chemical and power industries dropped from 19.6 percent in the first quarter to 17.2 percent in the second.

The decreases in energy-depleting industries helped improve the industrial structure, sharpen the competitiveness of China's industrial sector and effectively cut emissions and energy consumption, therefore ensuring the sustainability of the economic growth, Zhu said.

Enterprises picked up in performance, too. Large state-owned and non-public enterprises in the industrial sector attained 1.54 trillion yuan ($226.5 billion) in profits, up 81.6 percent year on year for the January-May period, he said. The performance of small and medium-sized enterprises has improved too, thanks to supportive policies introduced last year by the Central Government.

Progress was also made in optimizing the structure of industrial investments and upgrading technologies in enterprises, he said. Fixed-asset investments in the industrial sector rose 22 percent in the fist six months, down 6.7 percentage points year on year. Efforts to curb blind expansion in certain industries took effect, too. Investment growth in six energy-depleting industries declined from last year's 25.6 percent to 16.3 percent. The 4,441 centrally subsidized projects of technological upgrading have all kicked off, with 662 of them beginning production.

Domestic demand

"China's economic growth in the first half was mainly driven by domestic demand," said Wang Yiming, Vice President of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission.

NBS statistics said domestic demand contributed to 42 percent of China's economic growth, while net exports, which used to see high reliance, contributed to 5.8 percent and 9.9 percent of GDP growth, respectively, in the second quarter and the first quarter.