China’s economy shows steady growth in October
November 20, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
China’s economy posted steady growth in October with the industrial output enjoying a faster growth than September. The value-added industrial output expanded 5.9% year-on-year in October, 0.1 percentage points faster than September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In the first 10 months of the year, industrial output rose 6.4%. Growth accelerated in most sectors last month. Twenty-five of the 41 main sectors grew faster than in September, accounting for 61% of the total. Among them, the electronics, iron and steel, and gas supply industries maintained double-digit growth. Output from the high-technology industry grew 12.4% in October, up 1.2 percentage points from September. The service sector expanded 7.2% year-on-year in October, falling 0.1 percentage points from the previous month.
Fixed-asset investment (FAI) growth quickened to 5.7% year-on-year in the January-October period from 5.4% in the first three quarters, hitting a four-month high. The country’s economic growth was operating within a reasonable range, and the trend for its long-term sound development remained unchanged, an NVS Spokesperson said. Infrastructure investment posted a significant rebound to 3.7% year-on-year for the period from January to October, up from 3.3% in the first nine months. Private-sector investment, which accounts for about 60% of total fixed-asset investment (FAI), also expanded at a faster pace of 8.8% in the first 10 months, compared with an increase of 8.7% in the first three quarters. “We believe that the momentum in the infrastructure sector is likely to continue till the end of 2018,” said the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. However, property investment continued to cool as the government maintained its tightening measures to curb speculation in the market. Growth fell to 7.7% year-on-year in October from 8.9% in September, taking year-to-date growth down to 9.7%. Growth of housing sales measured by floor area in October fell to the lowest in six months.
Retail sales growth slowed more than expected to 8.6% in October from 9.2% in September. It climbed 9.2% for the first 10 months. Auto sales, which take up around 10% of total retail sales, plunged 6.4% last month and became one of the major drags. But on November 11 – Singles Day – Alibaba achieved a record of CNY213.5 billion in sales, exceeding the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States, the Shanghai Daily reports.
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