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BEIJING: China's economic juggernaut slowed but still maintained double-digit growth in the first half of the year as it sought to tame inflation and absorb global setbacks, official data showed Thursday.
China's economy expanded by 10.4 per cent in the first half and 10.1 per cent in the second quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said, down from growth of 11.9 per cent recorded for all of 2007.
Bureau spokesman Li Xiaochao said domestic inflation, problems with food supplies and global economic woes were among the chief concerns for China.
"Pressure for rapid price increases remains high, there are factors constraining steady agricultural production," Li said.
"The international financial situation is severe and there are uncertainties in world economic development."
Nevertheless, he said China's economy remained strong.
"The national economy maintains the momentum of steady and fast growth," he said.
China's consumer price index - the main gauge of inflation - rose 7.9 per cent in the first half of 2008, with food prices soaring 20.4 per cent, according to the bureau.
However, inflation has come off its 12-year highs seen earlier in the year, when it peaked at 8.7 per cent in February, which economists said was due to a raft of economic tightening measures that included interest rate hikes.
For June alone, inflation was 7.1 per cent, the bureau said.
"Consumer inflation pressure is easing as government measures such as price controls and increasing supplies start to take effect," said Qi Jingmei, an economist with the government's State Information Centre.
"There have been some worries that the economy is slowing down too fast, but the current growth rate is still within a normal range."
China had already released data last week showing the nation's trade surplus had fallen nearly 12 per cent in the first half, as exporters struggled with the global economic slowdown, particularly problems in the United States.
The appreciation of the yuan against the dollar, as well as curbs such as tariffs on exports imposed by the government to rein in the surplus, also contributed to the decline.
Jing Ulrich, chairman of China Equities for JPMorgan Securities, said that although the economy was slowing down, the government had the tools to maintain control.
"More moderate GDP growth and a narrowing trade surplus in June point to an export engine that is running more slowly, amid difficult conditions both at home and abroad," Ulrich said.
"Despite the multiple challenges of a global slowdown, high inflation and natural disasters, the Chinese authorities have a range of options for addressing the key domestic policy challenges."
China's fixed asset investments, the main indicator of state-funded spending on new productive capacity, rose 26.3 per cent in the first half of 2008 from a year earlier, the bureau said.
Industrial output, a key measure of activities in the nation's factories, expanded by 16.3 per cent in the first half and 16.0 per cent for June alone, according to the bureau.
Retails sales were up 21.4 per cent in the first six months, and 23.0 per cent in June.
- AFP
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