Industrial growth slows to 9.5%
April 30, 2013 Category Macro-economy, Weekly
China’s industry is still struggling to recover, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). In the first quarter, industry saw 9.5% value-added growth year-on-year, slower than the 10% seen in the previous quarter, and even slower than the 11.6% in the first quarter of 2012. Economists warned that the sector’s slower growth may force the country to rely more on growth driven by capital investment, resulting in an even greater challenge to its plan to rely increasingly on domestic consumption. Heavy industry registered 9.8% value-added growth year-on-year, while light industry saw 8.7%, and the technology industry saw 11.9% growth. Ministry Spokesman Xiao Chunquan said that a moderate decline should be seen as a normal phenomenon after industry’s rapid growth in the past two decades and will help ease the pressure on the environment and resources. “It also makes room for the structural adjustment of the economy,” he added. The industrial sector faces considerable pressure from a lack of robust growth in consumption as well as in the investment in fixed assets. Domestic consumption growth fell 2.4 percentage points in the first quarter from the previous year, while investment growth was on par with that of the first quarter of last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In the first two months, large industrial companies saw their combined profits rise 17.2% year-on-year, but some 20% of the companies were still running at a loss. Song Guoqing, Professor of Economics at Peking University, said that GDP growth in the second quarter might hover at around 8.1%. Xiao said consumption is playing an increasingly important role in supporting growth. He highlighted the role played by the IT sector. China’s e-commerce sector grew 45% year-on-year to CNY2.4 trillion in the first quarter, the China Daily reports.
Chinese industrial firms made total profits of CNY1.17 trillion in the first three months, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. In March, profits were CNY464.9 billion, up 5.3% from the same month last year. Among 41 sectors surveyed by the NBS, 29 reported rising profits in the first three months, while nine reported shrinking profits. Two sectors reported turnarounds in profitability and one reported a shrinking loss. The ferrous metal smelting and rolling industry reported a 3.3-fold increase in profits during the period, while profits in the electricity and heat production and supply industry leapt 90.5%. Profits for manufacturers of computers, telecoms gear and electronics were up 36.8% from the same period last year, while those in auto manufacturing rose 10.6%, agriculture and food production were up 9.9%, general equipment up 8.5% and the chemical sector increased 7.2%. On the downside, profits in coal mining dropped 40.3% while those in ferrous metal mining were down 5.2% and oil and gas exploration were off 4.5% during the same period, the report said.
- KURT VANDEPUTTE (UMICORE) APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE FLANDERS-CHINA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (FCCC)
- Webinar: “Knowing Your Chinese Partner” – May 26, 2021, 10 am – 12 am
- EMA starts rolling review of CoronaVac, WHO approves Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use
- The Global Times warns not to politicize the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)
- Hainan to become biggest duty-free market in the world