China's gross domestic product grew by 8.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2002, Xinhua reported. The overall rate for the first nine months of the year was 7.9 per cent. Zeng Peiyan, minister of the State Development Planning Commission, forecast that the economy would grow by 8 per cent over the whole year, while trade and foreign investment would hit record levels.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development predicted that China's GDP growth would fall to 7.5 per cent in 2003 and 6.9 per cent in 2004.