GF 323
CONFIDENTIAL #≈
5
years. Estimated at Rmb 123.8 billion, the amount of fixed asset investment undertaken by state-owned enterprises in the first three quarters of 1988 was 15.5% more than in the same period of 1987(7).
8.
(8) Rapid growth in workers' payroll and
inflationary expectations on the part of consumers led to a consumption boom in the first three quarters of 1988. The value of retail sales, estimated at Rmb 535 billion, was 28% higher than in the first three quarters of 1987. Discounting the effect of higher prices, the growth rate in volume terms was about 10%. Of this total, Rmb 466 billion was spent on consumer goods. Although institutions (social units) are often blamed for spending extravagently, their purchases accounted for only 10.5% of the total spending on consumer goods and the year-on-year growth rate of purchases by institutions in the first three quarters was slower than that of purchases by individual consumers.
9.
Measured in terms of retail prices, the year-on-year rate of inflation in China was 16% in the first three quarters of 1988
The rate of inflation
(9).
is still accelerating with the corresponding year-on-year figure for each month of the third quarter higher than the
(7)
(8)
(9)
Of this total of Rmb 123.8 billion, Rmb 81.7 billion were on capital construction (14.6% more than in the first three quarters of 1987) and Rmb 42.1 billion were on technical upgrading and transformation (18.7% more than in the first three quarters of 1987).
In the first three quarters of 1988, the amount of money paid to those employees on the payroll of state enterprises increased by 20.1% to Rmb 150.9 billion.
The year-on-year figure for the first half was only 13%.
CONFIDENTIAL
機密