Explanatory Notes to Major Statistical Indicator

Forest Area refers to the area of forest land where trees and bamboo grow with canopy density above 0.3, including land of natural woods and planted woods, but excluding bush land and thin forest land. It is an important indicator which reflects the total area of forest resource.

Forest Coverage Rate refers to the ratio of forest area to total land area, which is often expressed in %. According to the government regulations, when calculating forest coverage rate, forest area also includes the area of shrubby trees, the area of forest land inside farm land and the area of trees planted by the side of farm houses and along the roads, rivers and fields. It is an important indicator that reflects the status of forest resource and afforestation level.

Stock Volume of Forest refers to total stock volume of wood growing in the forest area, which shows the total size and level of forest resources.

Ensured Mineral Reserves refer to the actual mineral reserves, which equal to the proven mineral reserves (including industrial reserves and prospective reserves) minus extracted parts and underground losses.

Comparable Prices refer to prices that are used to remove the factors of price change in calculating economic aggregates, so as to facilitate comparison of aggregates over time. Two methods are used for calculating comparable prices: 1. Multiplying the output of products by their constant prices of certain year; 2. Conversion of data at current prices by relevant price index.

Average Annual Growth Rate Two methods for calculating average annual growth rate are applied, one is often called “level approach”, or the method of calculating geometric average, which is derived by comparing the level of the last year of the interval with that of the base year; the other is called “accumulative approach” or algebraic average or equation method, which is derived by the summation of the actual figure of each year in the interval divided by the figure in the base year.

Usually the results calculated by the two methods are fairly close, but they differed sharply when uneven economic development occurred with striking fluctuations in growth.

The average annual growth rates listed in this statistical yearbook are calculated by “level approach”. The base years are not listed when the years are listed for average annual growth rates. For instance, the average annual growth rate of 20 years since 1978 is listed as average annual growth rate of 1979-1998 without listing the base year 1978. And the analogy of this is also the same for the rest of the years.

Various Plan Periods: The various “periods” used in the tables refer as follows: the Resume Period refers to the years from 1950-1952; the First Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1953-1957; the Second Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1958-1962; the Third Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1966-1970; the Fourth Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1971-1975; the Fifth Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1976-1980; the Sixth Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1981-1985; the Seventh Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1986-1990; the Eighth Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1991-1995; the Ninth Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 1996-2000; the Tenth Five-Year Plan Period refers to the years from 2001-2005.