China’s economy still going strong despite headwinds

True, China’s economic growth has seen a 26-year low in the latest quarter, as many warned.

Yet to interpret that as the country having slipped into an unavoidable recession simply does not hold water.

There is no denying the world’s second-largest economy faces mounting pressures. The increase of 6.2 percent in the Chinese economy in the first three quarters was a hard-won result. But it is also an achievement that highlights its dynamism and the fact that its performance is fundamentally in its own hands.

That the gross domestic product of China this year is estimated to be about 27 times of that 26 years ago does not necessarily mean that the country now has that many favorable conditions and resources to realize a prefixed growth goal.

But although growth is indispensible, China is now paying more attention to the quality rather than the quantity, with the focus on creating jobs, upgrading industry, restructuring the economy, and protecting the ecology and environment, rather than simply pursuing a fast growth rate. As long as the growth rate stays within a reasonable range that is sufficient to help meet the aforementioned targets, it is appropriate growth.

And the growth of the Chinese economy remains remarkable when compared with that of other major economies, as the third quarter economic growth in Japan and Germany was below 0.5 percent, and the United States around 2 percent.

It is noteworthy that 10.97 million jobs were created in China in the first three quarters — the annual target of job creation this year is 11 million — and consumption, the most important growth driver since five years ago, has maintained a robust increase, up 8.2 percent in the third quarter from the same period last year.

And the operation revenue of the service sector grew 9.5 percent from January to August, with the emerging strategic service industries, high-tech service industries and science and technology service industries, up 12.1 percent, 11.9 percent and 11.6 percent, as the major growth points.

Which means the restructuring and upgrading of the national economy is being carried forward in an orderly way.

Also the added value of the emerging strategic industries in the third quarter was up 8.4 percent year-onyear, and the added value of hightech manufacturing rose by 8.7 percent, 2.8 percentage points and 3.1 percentage points higher than that of the overall industries respectively, with the purchasing managers index up 0.3 percentage points in September from August, hitting 49.8 percent. Which shows both the demand and the supply sides are steadily expanding, and the confidence of enterprises is picking up thanks to the implementation of a series of well-targeted pro-industry policies.

With the Chinese authority’s responsive policies and strategic composure, the expansion of one of the largest middle income groups in the world, the upgrading of the world’s biggest consumer market, the transition of the globe’s largest-scale industrial system, and the ongoing transformation, China can have confidence in the resilience of its economy, and the world can expect it to continue to be the largest contributor to global economic growth and common development.

Which, with the International Monetary Fund warning that 90 percent of economies are experiencing a “synchronized” slowdown, provides a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy outlook for the global economy in the coming months.