Chinese coal-rich province GDP up 6.7 pct in 2018

TAIYUAN, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- North China's Shanxi Province posted a GDP growth of 6.7 percent last year, according to the province's ongoing People's Congress.

In 2018, Shanxi's public budget revenue increased by 22.8 percent, its fixed-asset investment by 5.7 percent and its total sales of consumer goods by 8.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the province's per capita income increased by 6.5 percent and 8.9 percent for urban and rural residents respectively.

Shanxi's service sector accounted for 53.4 percent of its total GDP in 2018, serving as the ballast stone of the stable economic growth.

As one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, Shanxi's tourism revenue reached 972.9 billion yuan (about 144 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 25.5 percent.

The coal-rich province will continue to seek new engines to drive economic growth and lower energy consumption with its GDP expected to grow by 6.3 percent in 2019.