Guangdong Province remains China's biggest economic powerhouse with last year's gross domestic product nearing 3,570 billion yuan (about US$521 billion), or about US$5,400 per capita, the provincial bureau of statistics said on Saturday.

This is a 10.1-percent rise from the previous year, 1.1 percent higher than the 9 percent growth rate the provincial government projected early last year, the bureau said in a press release.

Still, the actual growth was down 4.6 percentage points from the previous year and 3.7 percent lower than the annual average growth rate posted from 1979 to 2007, it said.

The bureau attributed the slowdown to the severe natural disasters affecting most parts of China last year and the impact of the global financial crisis.

Despite the setbacks, Guangdong had met its 2010 GDP target of 3,440 billion yuan two years ahead of time, the bureau said. The 2010 target was set in 2006, at the start of the 11th Five-Year-Plan period.

Last year, the province's total fixed asset investment climbed 16.5percent to top 1,000 billion yuan, whereas consumption soared 20.3 percent to 1,277.2 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, Guangdong's foreign trade reached US$683.3 billion, up 7.8 percent year-on-year. Export totaled US$400 billion, up 9.4 percent year-on-year.

Affected by the global financial crisis, the growth rate of two-way trade was down by 12.4 percentage points, while that of export was down by 12.8 percentage points.

Guangdong Province has taken the lead in China's economic development for 20 consecutive years since 1989.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2009)