Beijing’s Olympic GDP Surge

Posted by Reading Time: < 1 minute

BEIJING, Aug. 7 – Beijing’s gross domestic product is expected to break the RMB1 trillion mark this year thanks to its hosting of the Olympic Games, said the deputy director of the city’s development and reform commission.

Wang Haiping, deputy director of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission said that the Games had kept Beijing’s economy strong, helping the city achieve “sound and fast economic development.”

Beijing’s GDP grew 12.3 percent in 2007 to stand at RMB900 billion, twice that of 2001 when it won the bid to host the Games, Wang said. The city has seen an average annual GDP growth of 12.4 percent.

Figures from the Beijing Statistics Bureau showed the city’s GDP reached RMB497.3 billion in the first six months of the year, up 11 percent from the same period last year.

Hosting the Olympic Games had boosted the city’s economy with infrastructure investment, increased consumption and improved living standards, he said. In 2007, the Olympic factor contributed 1.14 percent to the growth rate.

The statistics bureau forecast the Olympic factor, which referred to the impetus generated by investment in infrastructure and sports facilities, would add 0.85 percent to Beijing’s GDP growth this year.

The municipal government reported on Friday that it had spent almost RMB13 billion on the construction of the 31 competition venues, 45 training venues and other Games facilities.