China’s Slowing Economy in H1

China’s economy in the first half of this year is slowing to a moderate growth， against the backdrop of the complicated and volatile economic environment at home and abroad. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)， the GDP of China in the first half of this year was RMB 22，709.8 billion， an increase of 7.8 percent year on year. The growth of the first quarter was 8.1 percent， and slowed to 7.6 percent for the second quarter. The figure of the second quarter indicates the sixth consecutive quarter of decline， revealing the slowest growth pace since the first quarter of 2009. On a quarterly basis， the country’s economy grew 1.8 percent in the second quarter.

The weakening GDP growth makes it a concern that China may face a risk of hard landing.

But Sheng Laiyun， the spokesman for the NBS， is confident with the growth. “The overall national economy in the first half realized steady development and grew at a moderate pace，” he said at a press conference on July 13.

According to Sheng， the highlight of the economy is that agricultural production showed good momentum and sum- mer grain continued to get harvests. The industrial production run in the moderate growth range， but the enterprises profits decreased year on year.

Sheng pointed out in the first-half， the investment in fixed assets achieved steady growth while the growth of infrastructure investment turned from negative to positive. The investment growth in real estate development continued to drop and the decline of the sales of commercial buildings narrowed.

The sales in domestic market enjoyed steady growth while retail growth was faster than catering industry. The imports and exports showed slight increase while the general trade enjoyed faster growth. The money supply kept steady growth and newly increased loans increased year on year， Sheng added.

Moreover， the year-on-year growth of consumer price continued to fall back while producer price declined. The urban and rural residents’ income increased rapidly with a higher growth for rural residents.

“China does face a number of economic challenges， but I think the history of the past decade also provides good reasons to be confident in the Chinese authorities’ capacity to face those challenges and avoid a hard landing，” said Eslake， a renowned Australian economist was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

To boost the economy， China is taking a slew of measures. China has recently announced several cuts in interest rates and the reserve requirement ratio to encourage investment while monitoring the real estate sector. The government also unveiled a series of new export tax rebate measures to support SMEs， Xinhua reported.

Will China’s economy face a hard landing· What is the outlook of the economy in H2· Special Report of this issue will offer an insight into these topics.