China’s Economy Stabilizing in the First Three Quarters

China’s economy has been stabi- lizing， especially since September， due to a slew of measures taken by the government， said an official from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on October 18.

“The government paid more attention to maintaining steady growth， carried out the proactive fiscal policy and prudent monetary policy， and made great efforts in policy presetting and fine tuning. As a result， the overall national economy realized steady development with some positive changes: the economic development stabilized; structural adjustment speeded up and people’s livelihood continued to be improved，” said the NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun.

According to the NBS， the GDP grew 7.7 percent in the first three quarters and 7.4 percent in September. The figure was lower than the 7.6-percent growth in the second quarter and 8.1-percent growth in the first quarter. Though， it was still in line with economists’ predictions.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of China in the first three quarters of this year was 35.35 trillion yuan (5.61 trillion U.S. dollars)， up 7.7 percent year on year.

Although China’s economy has slowed for the seventh straight quarter， positive economic indicators have shown growth has picked up and the country’s economy is not at risk of hard landing.

“Clearly， concerns over continued slowdown can now be put to rest，” Dariusz Kowalczyk， an analyst at Crédit Agricole in Hong Kong， said in a research note.

The NBS said the stable economic growth was evidenced by the following positive economic indicators: Agricultural production showed good momentum and autumn grain is expected to get another harvest; the growth of industrial production fell slightly with enterprises profits decreased year-on-year; investment in fixed assets enjoyed steady and fast growth while the growth of total planned investment in newly-started projects continued to accelerate; investment growth in real estate development continued to drop while the growth of the sales of commercial buildings turned from negative to positive.

Furthermore， sales at domestic market enjoyed steady growth while retail sales grew faster than catering industry; the growth of imports and exports declined while trade surplus increased; money supply showed faster growth and newly increased loans increased year-on-year; the year-on-year growth of consumer price continued to fall back while producer price declined; urban and rural residents’ income increased rapidly with a higher growth for rural residents.

“In the next phase， we should pay more attention to maintaining steady growth， make earnest efforts to implement the promulgated policies and measures， promote economic structural adjustment and industrial upgrading which have won initial success，” said Sheng.

Where will be China’s economy headed in the future and what is the outlook? The Special Report of this issue will further explore the topics.