Robust economy slows in October
China’s economic activity moderated in October as data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday, but the country’s overall economic strength remains robust and is on track to achieve whole-year growth targets, an NBS official said.
Industrial production grew by 6.2 percent year-on-year in October, missing analysts’ forecast of 6.3 percent and falling by 0.4 percentage point from last month, according to the NBS.
Fixed-asset investment also saw weaker growth of 7.3 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of this year, compared with 7.5 percent during the first nine months.
The property sector cooled, as investment growth eased to 7.8 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months while retail sales growth moderated to 10 percent year-on-year in October, down by 0.3 percentage point from last month.
Liu Aihua, an NBS spokeswoman, said that fluctuations of the economic data in October did not change the overall trend of China’s steady economic growth with improved quality and efficiency.
Steady production growth,
entered the second week.
The two remain at loggerheads on key issues such as climate financing and pre-2020 actions, according to Xie.
Developed nations pledged to provide $100 billion to help poorer countries tackle climate change, but the widening financing gap due to the US withdrawal has yet to be filled by other developed nations.
Some developed nations refuse to put more efforts on cutting carbon emissions in the coming years, as there are no binding targets set in the Paris Agreement before 2020.
“There is no time for climate laggards,” Xie said. “We need to put things onto the table and sincerely work to solve them.”
Top climate officials from China, the European Union and Canada, representing three different blocs, held a conference on the sideline of the climate talks on Monday, but no formal results were released after the meeting was delayed for more than an hour.
EU commissioner on climate Miguel Arias Canete said he expected more results in the coming days as talks at the political level get underway.
Chai Qimin, director of the international cooperation department of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, said developed nations should come out with
concrete steps for pre-2020 actions as soon as possible during the conference, as few want to leave progress until the last minute.
“Without continued financial support from developed nations, poor nations will be exposed under severe climate risks,” said Guo Hongyu, a senior researcher at the NGO Greenovation Hub. “We will face more difficulties in the post-2020 period if problems during 2020 are not addressed.”