Chinese usher in pig year with joy

Urban and rural residents enjoyed double-digit growth in per capita disposable income, with urban residents earning 11,759 yuan, up 12.1 percent; while that for rural residents was 3,587 yuan, up 10.2 percent.

Although the income growth of rural residents is moderate, they have greater expectations in the new year, as the Chinese government has vowed to increase investment in rural areas and narrow the economic disparity between rural and urban areas.

Worrying that the economy might go overheated, the Chinese government has adopted a series of tightening measures since the second half of last year, mainly targeting at surging housing prices and investment in repetitive projects.

It has also taken measures to restructure the economy, eyeing to balance international trade and increase domestic consumption.

Even though, the country's economy is still expected to grow robustly in 2007. The World Bank has forecasted that a GDP growth of 9.6 percent is possible for 2007, while many Chinese and foreign analysts held that it will remain above 10 percent.

These forecasts are quite reasonable, considering that the profit growth of China's listed companies was well above 30 percent in 2006, and the strong earnings momentum is expected to continue in the new year.

On February 16, the last trading day before the Year of the Pig, the Shanghai Composite Index surged over the mark of 3000 points and closed at a record high of 2998.47 points, indicating investors' strong confidence in the market.

"There may be drastic fluctuations during the year, but I see no reason for a market crash," said Huang Huanan, a technician with an IT company in Beijing, who has been investing in the stock market since the early 1990s.

"The economy will continue to growth strongly, I'm confident that I'll get a return of at least 30 percent this year," he said.

Editor: Cindy