Strong start of the year for China’s economy
March 20, 2018 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
China’s economy showed steady growth in the first two months of the year, as industrial output and consumption grew at a faster pace, while growth in services and investment slowed slightly but remained stable. Industrial output expanded 7.2% year-on-year over the January-February period, 1 percentage point faster than the pace of December, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. The high-tech sector showed a 11.9% year-on-year growth, 4.7 percentage points faster than the growth of industrial output, and consumer goods manufacturing also showed a rapid increase. Economists of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group said in a note that improving performance in the state-owned enterprise sector helped to lift industrial production growth.
During January and February, fixed-asset investment grew 7.9% year-on-year, up 0.7 percentage points from the level of the whole year 2017 while falling by 1 percentage point from the same period of last year. Infrastructure investment, which accounts for over 20% of the total fixed-asset investment, rose 16.1% year-on-year for the two months, slowing down slightly but remaining a steady growing trend. Investment in property development rose 9.9% from a year earlier, up 2.9 percentage points from 2017 as a whole.
Mao Shengyong, NBS Spokesman, said the property market – including the overall housing price – is relatively stable, and real estate investment maintained a reasonable growth after a period of adjustment and control.One of the main contributors to retail sales growth was auto sales. While the total volume of sales only saw modest climb, the average sales price jumped, indicating that the demand for cars is more quality-oriented. Output of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) surged 178.1% year-on-year during the period, while industrial robots production jumped 25.1%. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.2% in the two months from a year ago, with the margin of increase up 0.5 percentage points from a year earlier. Foreign trade in January and February rose 16.7% year-on-year to CNY4.52 trillion. Imports increased 15.2% and exports jumped 18%. Mao said the data indicate a steady and better-than-expected economic growth in general, and the Bureau is confident in achieving the goal of a 6.5% annual growth in 2018 and creating more jobs, the Shanghai Daily reports.
China’s power generation saw faster growth in the first two months, with electricity from clean energy sources expanding at a rapid pace. In January and February, power production rose 11%, 4.7 percentage points faster than the same period in 2017. The growth was the highest since August 2013. Electricity from thermal power plants, which accounts for 77% of all power generation, jumped 9.8%, 2.8 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. Electricity from hydropower plants climbed 5.9%, compared with a 4.7% decrease registered for the first two months of last year. Nuclear, wind and solar power production surged 17.9%, 34.7% and 36% respectively. Coal output increased 5.7% to 520 million tons, compared with the 1.7% year-on-year decline in the first two months of last year.
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