China Appeared Doubled Russia But Had to Pay for Crude
Chinese national statistics bureau unveiled yesterday the country’s economical results for 2004, nearly all of them materially higher than Russia’s indicators.
China’s GDP was approximately twice above Russia’s. But in one respect last year proved less successful for China – the country was buying overpriced crude, while Russia was selling it.
Russia’s economic growth has been officially estimated at 6.8 percent in 2004, having hit the initial outlook of the government, but failed to meet the indicators required to double the GDP in ten years. China’s GDP grew 9.5 percent in 2004, the pace is more than enough to ensure 2 fold increase in the GDP over a decade (when it comes to doubling, per capita production is meant, while for China, the population growth is also to be taken into account). In terms of dollars, Chinese GDP has not even doubled, but nearly tripled the GDP of Russia (in absolute, not per capita value). According to the national statistics bureau, Chinese production reached $1.65 trillion last year. Russia’s GDP stood at $575 billion, the RF Economic Development and Trade Ministry said.
Moreover, under the Chinese statistics, production growth (or to be more exact, added value in industry) was 11.5 percent over the period compared with 6.1 percent in Russia. In China, it is becoming more and more profit-raising to produce industrial goods. Overall profits of the manufacturers reached $138.3 billion, having climbed at 38.1 percent pace vs. a year earlier. To speed up production, retail rose 13.3 percent to $652.17 billion. Real income of the urban population amounted to $1,140 per capita, 7.7 percent up on year.
Foreign trade was booming in Russia last year. According to the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), 11-month foreign turnover was $248.2 billion (130.9 percent to January-November of 2003), the exports gained 34.2 percent to $163.6 billion, the imports climbed 25 percent to $84.5 billion. But even there China was ahead with the foreign turnover growth of 35.7 percent. The exports increased 35.4 percent, the imports grew 36 percent. The gap further widens when it comes to absolute figures. China’s foreign turnover (though annual vs. 11-month data available for Russia) boosted to $1.15 trillions, including exports of $593.4 billion and imports of $561.4 billion. Direct investments of the foreigners were also absolutely unthinkable compared with Russia’s indicators. The amount reached $60.6 billion (13.3 percent up on year). In the inclination to amass foreign currency, China’s authorities beat Russia several times. Only in 2004, Chinese gold/foreign exchange reserves widened by $206.7 billion to $609.9 billion.
On the other hand, Russia has taken advantage of the boom in world prices for crude. 234.4 million tons of oil were exported only in a span of January-November of 2004. The amount was 13.3 percent above compared with the previous year’s period. China had to raise oil imports by 34.8 percent to 122.72 million tons. That is to say, when Russia was making money, China had to spend it.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 26, 2005
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