| Chinese economy still lifts amid global woes |
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| Friday,October 24,2008 Posted: 04:40 BJT(2040 GMT) |
| From:xinhua news Article type:Reproduced |
China's economic growth slowed to a five-year low of 9 percent in the third quarter, easing from 10.1 percent in the second quarter and 10.6 percent in the first, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
The growth was hard-earned against a background of turbulent global markets, a series of natural disasters at home and high inflationary pressure, said Li Xiaochao, the spokesman for the statistics bureau.
The expansion of 9.9 percent through September, in line with forecasts by economists, was still faster than the average annual growth of 9.8 percent of the past 30 years.
China's gross domestic product increased 9.9 percent in the first nine months to 20.16 trillionyuan (US$2.95 trillion), down2.3 percentage points from thesame period of last year.
The growth of consumer price index, the main gauge of inflation, eased to 4.6 percent in September from 4.9 percent in August. It was the lowest inflation figure in 15 months.
Government efforts, a good summer harvest and falling prices of commodities on global markets were cited as main reasons. These factors helped to lower the CPI figure in the first nine months to 7 percent.
The producer price index growth slowed to 9.1 percent in September from August's 10.1 percent. The figure through September was 8.3 percent.
"China's economy managed to maintain a steady and relatively fast growth amid such an eventful period so full of uncertainty," Li said during a press conference in Beijing.
"The government has fine-tuned macro-economic policies, made preserving growth the top priority and will stick to a flexibleand prudent policy stance."
Li did not elaborate on possible policy changes but the market speculated that another interest rate cut may be imminent to bolster growth after the release of the key economic data.
In the past few months, China's policy makers have increased the export-tax rebate, pruned interest rates and expanded subsidy coverage for small and medium enterprises.
The measures are expected to help sustain growth and aid exporters and SMEs, which have been battered by weaker external demand and higher production costs.
"The growth is basically healthy, but authorities have to look closely to the export and investmentsectors while trying to boost domestic demand to counter negative influences from outside markets," said Li Maoyu, an analyst with Changjiang Securities Co.
In the first nine months, China's exports increased 22.3 percent to US$1.07 trillion, down 4.8 percentage points from a year ago. The outlook was still uncertain, Li said.
Retail sales kept up a steady expansion of 22 percent through September to 7.78 trillion yuan.
Fixed-asset investment gained 27 percent to 11.6 trillion yuan, up 1.3 percentage points from a year earlier because of the demand created by reconstruction work in areas hit by snow, earthquakes and floods.
Through September, China's manufacturing sector grew 10.5 percent to 10.1 trillion yuan, down 3 percentage points from the same period of last year. The service industry expanded 10.3 percent to 7.9 trillion yuan, down 2.4 percentage points.
Only the agricultural sector lodged a faster growth, 4.5 percent to 2.2 trillion yuan, up 0.2 percentage point from a year ago.
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