Linda Lim BEIJING, July 15 -- China’s economic growth slowed to a record low of 6.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 as the shock from the protracted trade war with the United States continued to resonate through the world’s second largest economy. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth slid from 6.4 per cent in the first quarter, according to data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. Even during the global financial crisis in 2009, China’s quarterly GDP growth did not dip below 6.4 per cent. The figure, nonetheless, falls within the range of Beijing’s target growth rate for the year of between 6.0 to 6.5 per cent and was generally expected. The median forecast of a poll of analysts conducted by Bloomberg was 6.2 per cent, but some had predicted worse, with many having deep concerns about the effect of the trade war. The data also showed that over the first half of the year, China’s economy grew by 6.3 per cent.
This was up from 5.0 per cent growth in May, which was the lowest since February 2002, and well above the expectations of a poll of economists, which had predicted 5.2 per cent growth. Within industrial production, manufacturing grew by 6.2 per cent year-on-year, up from 5.0 per cent in May. This beat expectations, and contrasts sharply with the weak sentiment among manufacturers surveyed in June’s purchasing managers’ index. Furthermore, China’s marginalized private sector provided the main driver of industrial growth in June, expanding by 8.3 per cent in June and 8.7 per cent in the first half of the year, compared with 6.2 per cent and 5.0 per cent for state-owned enterprises over the same periods, respectively. Fixed asset investment, the national spend on physical assets such as real estate, infrastructure or machinery, grew by 5.8 per cent in the January to June period compared to a year earlier, higher than the 5.6 per cent growth reported in May and above the Bloomberg poll median, which had predicted no change. Investment in China’s mining sector surged by 22.3 per cent over the first half of the year, while government investment outstripped that of private investment. Investment in property development, meanwhile, grew by 10.9 per cent in the first half of the year, down from 15.8 per cent in the year to May.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|