Companies
Economic momentum maintained
Encouraging signs as results exceed expectations in several main indicators
China continued its economic impetus last month, with better-than-expected results recorded in several major indicators, according to government data.
Analysts said the economy appears to be stabilizing, despite the fragile global market and problems remaining with domestic development.
The industrial sector continued the trend seen in July, with year-on-year growth climbing to 6.3 percent in August, a month-on-month increase of 0.3 percentage points. This was the fastest growth in five months, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
The market had expected industrial growth to expand by 6.1 percent, according to a Reuters poll.
Forecasts exceeded
Retail sales growth rose to 10.6 percent in August, compared with 10.2 percent in July, while fixed-asset investment grew 8.2 percent year-on-year in August, up by 4.3 percentage points from the previous month, according to the bureau.
Sheng Laiyun, spokesman for the bureau, said at a news conference: “On the whole, there have been positive changes in the national economy, with main indicators picking up, structural reform deepening and growth of new sectors accelerating. The over-all trend of economic growth stabilizing this year has continued (in August).”
Sheng said considerable headway has been made in structural reform. For example, steel industry stocks fell by 12.2 percent year-on-year in the first eight months, and the asset liability ratio of major industrial enterprises fell to 56.4 percent by the end of July, a 0.6 percentage point drop from a year ago.
Output of high-tech industries grew by 11.8 percent in August, higher than overall industrial output growth, while sales in emerging industries, such as online medical services and online education, saw fast growth.
Liu Dongliang, an economist at China Merchants Bank, said, “The August data beat market expectations, indicating that…
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