Soon construction for the 2008 Olympics will also kick in.Even so, Jonathan Anderson, UBS's chief Asia economist, says that he doubts a construction upturn could drive the annual growth of import volumes back to 35-40% and "make China once again the single largest growth driver of Asian (and global) trade and GDP".
The upturn was therefore driven by services, where output rose 0.8%,.
Few companies in Europe or America are raising money through IPOs; although bond issuance has spiked recently, the upturn was largely driven by refinancing activity as firms tapped bond markets to pay off dearer debt.
According to the detail of the ONS's figures, the upturn in GDP was driven by growth of 0.6% in the key services sector, which includes retail and transport and makes up more than three quarters of the economy.
Steve Radley, the CITB's policy director, says employers need to capitalise on the upturn and help drive up the number of skilled workers.
The French economic upturn last year, by contrast, was driven by strong domestic demand and growing consumer confidence.In this section NATO piles it on Brave gamble The ground-war scenario Günter Verheugen, ever up-and-coming Powderkeg A Russian shuffle Terror returns?
Demand for suits is rising, driven by an upturn in the Japanese economy, an end to the fashion for casual clothes at the office and, he thinks, a trend amongst young people towards dressing more formally when socialising.Why are British companies doing well at the top end of the market?
That has opened up a gap with rival economies, threatening the sustainability of the economic upturn, which has so far been driven largely by a rapid increase in the number of people in jobs.
But most agreed that the rally in Nokia's shares and those of other technology-related companies was not being driven by a significant upturn in their business prospects.
"The stabilized performance follows Toshiba's cost reduction and business restructuring measures, mainly in electronic devices segment, while the upturn in its profitability has been driven in particular by NAND-type flash memory, used in memory cards for digital products," S&P said.
