Five Words that Explain China's Current Economy Trending

‘Five words that explain China’s current economy’: National Bureau of Statistics spokesman

Steady growth, progressive structural reform, emerging new economies, improved fundamentals and remaining hardships can best describe the current Chinese economy, Spokesman of National Bureau of Statistics Sheng Laiyun told the People’s Daily in a recent interview.

Traditional industries are now speeding up their transformation and newly-emerging development is now gaining momentum, the spokesman added.

Southeast China’s Guangdong Province was cited as an example. As the forefront of China’s reform and opening up in the 1980s, the province now is home both to IT business leaders such as Huawei and labor-intensive toy manufacturers.

The Chinese economy has maintained steady growth with stable employment and commodity prices, while GDP growth was kept at 6.7 percent in both the first and second quarters, Sheng said.

Citing the relatively low 1.8-percent growth in the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, and a declining unemployment rate in July, Sheng stressed that the economy is running in a “reasonable range.”

As the country accelerated its pace in supply-side structural reform, economic transformation and upgrades, the industrial and regional structures have been optimized, Sheng pointed out.

He illustrated that in the first six months, tertiary industry contributed 54.1 percent of the GDP, 1.8 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Most central and western regions saw higher growth than East China in terms of added value of industrial output.

In addition, China’s economy is boosted by newly-emerged driving forces, rapidly-increasing enterprises and more active new industries, the spokesman said.

In July, the added-value of high-tech and equipment manufacturing industries increased by 12.2 percent and 10.7 percent respectively. Online business models in education, medical care and car-hailing services help maintain momentum.

Additional positive factors have also helped economic quality improve, Sheng noted. In the first half of 2016, energy consumption per unit of GDP dropped 5.2 percent yearly, he said, adding that this indicates an improvement in economic development model.

The consecutive slide of the producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, also proves the optimization in market environment and business profits, he added.

But the spokesman at the same time admitted that roadblocks still lie ahead for China’s economy.

Because of the weak global economic recovery, gloomy global trade, and other increasing uncertainties, as well as temporary side effects brought on by the economic restructuring and transformation, China’s economy faces difficulties, he explained.

“China has, overall, achieved stable performance while at the same time secured progress in its economic development,” Sheng concluded. - people.cn

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