Data show slowing China economic growth
Print Edition
CHINA’S economic growth eased sharply in the first two months of the year because several indicators grew slower, which led to analysts’ call for easing policies.
The country’s industrial production rose 8.6 percent from a year earlier in the January-February period, slower than the pace of 9.7 percent in December last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
Retail sales added 11.8 percent year on year in the first two months, easing from the jump of 13.6 percent in December due to soft consumption during the Spring Festival holiday.
Also, fixed-asset investment gained 17.9 percent on year during the two months — the slowest since 2002 — down from the 19.6 percent full-year growth in 2013.
China’s exports slumped 18.1 percent from a year earlier in February, worse than expected after taking seasonal factors into consideration, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
“The activity data point to a risk that China’s first-quarter growth will likely progress at below 7.5 percent,” said Zhou Hao, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.
“We see that the central bank has eased its monetary policy as the yuan has depreciated by 1.7 percent in past weeks and market liquidity has improved significantly ... but the new figures suggested more policy easing should be introduced.”
The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said manufacturing activity grew at the slowest pace in eight months in February when production eased and new orders contracted.
Lian Ping, chief economist for China at the Bank of Communications, said China will likely roll out new policies to support growth as inflation was not a top concern right now.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
