Thursday, July 14, 2016

CHINA Q2 GROWTH BETTER THAN EXPECTED

China Q2 economic growth steady at 6.7%, slightly better than expected

Workers in the process of making soft toys at a toy factory in Lianyungang, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, on July 12.
Workers in the process of making soft toys at a toy factory in Lianyungang, in eastern China's Jiangsu province, on July 12.PHOTO: AFP
BEIJING (REUTERS) - China's economy grew 6.7 per cent in the second quarter from a year earlier, steady from the first quarter and slightly better than expected as the government stepped up efforts to stabilise growth in the world's second-largest economy.
Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted gross domestic product (GDP) would dip to 6.6 per cent in the second quarter, which would have been the weakest since the global financial crisis.
Second quarter GDP rose 1.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter, the statistics bureau said on Friday (July 15), also better than economists had forecast.
Weighed down by sluggish demand at home and abroad, industrial overcapacity and cooling private investment, China's economy grew 6.9 per cent in 2015, its slowest rate in more than two decades.
Policymakers have turned to record credit expansion and an infrastructure spending spree to stabilise growth this year, but concerns are growing about the dangers of too much debt-fuelled stimulus and delays to economic reforms that could hurt longer-term growth.
China's statistics bureau said that the economy still faces downward pressure, but that economic growth in the first half lays a good foundation for achieving the government's 2016 target.

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