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China cuts GDP growth in 2012 to 7.7%
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China yesterday cut its figure for economic growth for last year to 7.7 percent from 7.8 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said, in an unexpected downgrade.
The world’s second-largest economy has long been seen as a potential driver of global recovery, but has put in a mixed performance in recent months.
The new figure posted on the bureau’s website remains the lowest for gross domestic product growth since 1999, when it expanded 7.6 percent.
China’s GDP was 51.9 trillion yuan (US$8.5 trillion) last year, the bureau added.
The country officially overtook Japan as the world’s second-largest economy in 2010, and the growth figure is a key statistic for global investors, businesses and institutions.
Like other economies, China regularly revises its annual GDP figures although it usually does so in an upward direction.
But it is looking to steer toward a soft landing after years of high-speed growth.
The bureau cited “more comprehensive and reliable fundamental” information for the change. The revision was “preliminary,” it added, and the figure could be altered again as more data was obtained.
The 7.7 percent reading remains above the government’s economic growth target for last year of 7.5 percent.
The target for this year is also 7.5 percent. But after an acceleration to 7.9 percent in the final three months of 2012, growth slowed to 7.7 percent in the January-March period and 7.5 percent in the second quarter.
Growth in the first six months of the year was 7.6 percent, the bureau said in July, calling the performance “generally stable” and within expectations.
Despite two straight quarters of slowing growth, recent data for the current third quarter have been surprisingly solid so far, causing some economists to believe that it may be poised to stem the slide.
The 2012 figure compares with expansion of 9.3 percent in 2011 and 10.4 percent in 2010, and confirms a slowing trend after years of double-digit growth.
China says it wants to retool its economic model away from a reliance on big-ticket government-led investments and make private spending the key driver for growth that is sustainable.
President Xi Jinping said in April that China’s days of “ultra-high-speed” growth are probably over, but that it can “sustain a relatively high speed of economic growth.”
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