BEIJING, July 2 (Reuters) - Direct economic losses caused by May's devastating earthquake in southwest China have already exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($146 billion), a provincial official was quoted as saying.

The website of the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece newspaper the People's Daily (www.people.com.cn) said that Huang Xiaoxiang, a vice governor of Sichuan province, gave the estimate to a visiting U.S. delegation.

The figure was much higher than the 67 billion yuan previously announced by Xi Guohua, a vice minister of industry and information technology, at a news conference in May.

China's 2007 gross domestic product was 24.95 trillion yuan. The earthquake killed about 70,000 people and made more than 10 million homeless, according to official figures. ($1=6.8561 yuan) (Reporting by Zhou Xin, editing by Ben Blanchard)

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