Chinese economy shows firming signs amid restructuring efforts

BEIJING - A slew of upbeat economic data pointed to latest restructuring achievements and provided fresh stabilization signs for the Chinese economy. Highly-watched economic figures released yesterday, including industrial output, retail sales, fixed-asset investment and housing sales, confirmed the message that the ongoing growth model transitioning is providing new impetus to the world’s second largest economy. In the first four months, total retail sales of consumer goods rose 10.2 percent year on year, 0.2 percentage points faster than the growth in the first quarter, buttressed by vigorous consumption growth in rural areas and online shopping, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday. Retail sales rose 12.1 percent in rural areas during the same period, outpacing urban areas, where retail sales climbed 9.9 percent. Online retail sales surged 32 percent year on year in the first four months. “The figures indicate continued growth of domestic consumer demand, which was partly driven by consumption upgrades and new business patterns such as online sales,” said NBS spokesperson Xing Zhihong. China is moving toward an economy boosted by consumer spending, innovation and services, reducing reliance on investment and exports of low value-added goods and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural dwellers. China’s GDP growth in Q1 stood at 6.9 percent, up slightly from 6.8 percent in the previous quarter, with 77.2 percent of that driven by consumption, 12.6 percentage points higher than the 2016 level. The service sector rose 7.7 percent yearon-year, outpacing a 3-percent increase in agriculture and 6.4 percent in secondary industries. Property investment growth remained robust and the inventory trended down. Investment in real estate development increased 9.3 percent year on year from January to April, 0.2 percentage points faster than the growth rate registered in the first quarter. At the end of April, 674.7 million square meters of property remained unsold in China, decreasing by 13.4 million square meters from the end of March. In a similar vein, China’s value-added industrial output rose 6.5 percent year on year in April, 0.5 percentage points higher than the same month last year, while profits at industrial enterprises above the designated size surged 28.3 percent year on year in the first quarter.

High-tech and low-carbon products witnessed faster production growth in the first four months, with the production volumes of industrial robots and solar batteries surging 51.7 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively, Xing said at a press conference. “China’s transition to slower but structurally rebalanced growth continues,” the World Bank said in a recent report, noting that economic growth will continue to moderate as capacity is cut and credit kept on a tight leash. As of Monday, 31.7 million tonnes of steel and iron capacity and 69 million tonnes of coal capacity have been cut, accounting for 63.4 percent and 46 percent of the annual targets, respectively, Xing said.

(Xinhuanet.com)