China's 2Q GDP up 7.9%

China’s annual GDP growth jumped in the second quarter to 7.9% from 6.1% last quarter, Reuters reported. The 7.9% jump, announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was made possible by heavy fiscal and monetary stimulus, and beat economists’ predictions of a second-quarter growth rate of 7.5%. However, the bureau cautioned that economic difficulties remained. "The base for recovery is still weak. Growth momentum is unstable. The recovery pattern is unbalanced and thus there are still uncertain and volatile factors in the recovery process," the NBS said in a statement. It also reported that for the first half of 2009, GDP totaled RMB13.99 trillion (US$2.2 trillion), urban per-capita incomes increased 11.2% and real rural per-capita incomes increased 8.1%. First-half urban fixed-asset investment increased by 33.5%, up 7.2 percentage points from the first half of 2008.