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Chinese President Hu Jintao (r) shakes hands with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Wed. Nov. 10, 2009. Photo: Xinhua |
China’s economic recovery gathered pace in October as industrial output rose at the most rapid rate since March 2008, while retail sales also posted strong gains.
Besides today's impressive economic data, China's central bank, the People's Bank of China, said that the rate of new lending fell last month, in a possible signal that the government is beginning to slow the monetary stimulus it has injected into the economy this year.
Growth of the new yuan loans slowed to RMB 253 billion (US$37.06 billion) from September'
s RMB 516.7 billion ($75.68 billion), according to the central bank.
Trade
On trade, it was reported that China's imports and exports fell 10.7 percent in October year on year, but monthly exports exceeded US$100 billion for a fourth straight month this year, the General Administration of Customs announced Wednesday.
Imports stood at $86.8 billion for October, a decrease of 6.4 percent compared with the same month last year, while exports dropped 13.8% to $110.8 billion.
From January to October, the country's imports and exports totaled $1.76 trillion, down 19.9 percent compared with the same period last year.
Imports for the first 10 months were $798.13 billion, down 19 percent year on year; exports declined 20.5 percent to $957.36 billion.
The trade surplus for the first 10 months was down 27.2 percent at $159.23 billion.
The EU was China's biggest trading partner for this period, though bilateral trade declined 18.7 percent to $292.42 billion; the US was second with bilateral trade at $239.36 billion$$, down 14.9 percent; Japan followed with bilateral trade down 19.3 percent at $182.34 billion.
Exports dropped 13.8 percent in October year on year, the smallest decline rate since January. In September, the rate was 15.2 percent.
"This suggests improving demand from overseas," said Zhang Junsheng, an international trade expert with the University of International Business and Economics, while forecasting exports would continue the downward trend until the first quarter next year.
Industrial production
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that industrial production rose 16.1 percent from the same month a year before, up from a rate of 13.9 per cent in the year to September.
Power generation was 17.1 percent higher over the same month last year, up for the fifth month in a row.
CPI
China's consumer price index (CPI) dipped 0.5% in October and was down 5.8% in the 12-month period, the NBS said Wednesday.
Investment
China's urban fixed-asset investment rose 33.1 percent in the first 10 months to RMB 15.07 trillion yuan ($2.21 trillion), compared with the same period a year earlier, the NBS announced Wednesday.
The growth rate was 5.9 percentage points higher than that in the same period of last year, but 0.2 percentage points lower than that in the first nine months, NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said at a press conference.
Retail sales
China's retail sales in October rose 16.2 percent year on year to RMB 1.17 trillion ($171 billion), the NBS announced.
The rise was 5.8 percentage points lower than that of a year earlier, but 0.7 percentage points higher than that in September, NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said.
The first 10 months saw a 15.3-percent growth in retail sales to RMB 10.14 trillion yuan year on year. The rate was 6.7 percentage points down from the same period last year, and 0.2 percentage points up from the first nine months this year, Sheng said.
