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Second economic census to be held

By Wang Xu (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-25 13:36

China will carry out its second economic census between October and December, which will give the government a deeper insight into how the economy is impacted by the global financial turmoil.

The census, conducted every five years since 2004, will help form the basis of the nation's social and economic development blueprint during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15).

Statisticians around the nation will survey all enterprises from the secondary and tertiary sectors, including the smaller ones that had earlier been left out in annual statistics, the National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement.

Economists say the census will prove particularly important this year as the figures will shed more light on how local enterprises are faring amid the subprime crisis. And, the government might accordingly adjust its macro-control measures.

China's economic growth, which surged 11.9 percent in 2007, slowed to 10.4 percent year-on-year in the first half. The government has said it will strive to maintain stable economic growth, which is seen as a sign that it will relax the tightening measures if economic outlook worsens at home.

"One shortcoming of the annual statistics is that the figures about small enterprises are largely based on projections," said Wang Xiaolu, deputy director of the National Economic Research Institute, under the China Reform Foundation. "But this sector plays an important role in employment."

According to Wang's research, small enterprises, with annual sales revenue of less than 5 million yuan, account for 40 percent of the employment in the manufacturing sector though they only contribute 10 percent of the industrial output.

In the first half, small and medium-sized enterprises are said to have been the worst hit by the weakening foreign demand, credit squeeze and rising labor cost. But earlier official statistics had revealed the nation created more than 6.4 million jobs in the first half. Another official statistic, however, showed more than 670,000 SMEs have shut down in the same period.

China conducted its first economic census in December 2004. The government later upgraded its GDP estimate for the year by 16.8 percent after input from the nationwide survey.

About 8 million manufacturing enterprises and more than 30 million private businesses will be involved in the census this year.