BEIJING, July 17 (Xinhua) -- In the first half of this year, China achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) of 5.0053 trillion yuan (about 605 billion U.S. dollars), up 8.2 percent from the same period last year.

　　Spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Yao Jingyuan told a press conference here Thursday that although the growth was slower than the first quarter, it was still 0.4 percentage points faster than that for the same period last year and was one of the fastest growth periods since 1995.

　　According to Yao, the negative impact on the country's national economy from SARS started to show effects in the second quarter of this year. Passenger transportation, catering, social services and tourism were hardest hit by the disease.

　　The NBS statistics showed that the growth rate of China's GDP dropped to 6.7 percent in the second quarter, 3.2 percentage points lower than the first quarter.

　　The growth rate of the tertiary industry climbed only 0.8 percent in the second quarter of the year, down 6.1 percentage points from the same period last year, Yao said.

　　Passenger transportation volumes dropped 23.9 percent during the period, and air passenger transportation volume shrank by almost half.

　　A survey conducted by the NBS showed that the income volume of the social service sector was down 14.8 percent in the first half of the year when compared to last year, and retail sales of consumption items increased 6.7 percent, 2.5 percentage points lower than the first quarter.

　　The growth rate of agricultural added value dropped from 3.5 percent in the first quarter to 2.3 percent in the second, Yao said, attributing the drop to negative SARS influence.

　　SARS also cut the per capita cash income of Chinese farmers by 35 yuan (about 4.5 dollars) in the second quarter of the year. (more)