China's Q3 GDP growth accelerates to 7.8% |
2013-10-19 05:12 |
Growth in the first nine months stood at 7.7 percent, in line with market expectations and above the government's full-year target of 7.5 percent. " According to the NBS, GDP totaled 38.68 trillion yuan (6.3 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first nine months. "Major economic indicators are in favor of promoting economic restructuring and pushing forward reforms," Sheng said, adding that the authorities would let the market play a better role to bring out the economy's intrinsic vigor. The latest GDP figures headed a string of other data showing a rebound in the world's second-largest economy after Industrial output increased 9.6 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2013, while the growth of fixed-asset investment, a measure of government and private spending on infrastructure, stood at 20.2 percent during the period, up 0.1 percentage points over the first half of the year. Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 12.9 percent from a year earlier. The growth rate picked up by 0.2 percentage points from the first half, according to the NBS. Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed confidence in "Impetus comes from reform, regulation and innovation," he said, adding that the slowdown is an intended result of Zhang Liqun, of the "It must be clarified that the country's economy is moving towards steady growth, rather than a new rising trend," Zhang said. Zhang said growth in the final quarter of the year might see a slight drop from this quarter, and it would be normal to see a growth between 7 to 8 percent. Liu Shucheng, an expert with the The rebound in the third quarter was mainly driven by strong industrial output growth in July and August, as the production growth in September came down, according to Liu. NBS data showed "The endogenous impetus of Liu forecast GDP growth in the last quarter dropping to 7.6 percent and growth for the whole year between 7.6 and 7.7 percent. Kuang Xianming, head of the economic research center with the China Institute for Reform and Development, is more optimistic, citing rising quarter-on-quarter GDP growth in the first three quarters. GDP grew by 2.2 percent in the third quarter over the second quarter, up from a quarter-on-quarter growth of 1.7 percent in the second quarter and 1.6 percent in the first. The accelerating quarter-on-quarter growth shows the economy has stabilized, and may grow at 7.9 to 8 percent for the whole year, Kuang said. |