China’s GDP Growth Sure to Exceed 6.5% in 2017: CASS Blue Paper

607

One of China’s leading think tanks says that the country’s economic growth is bound to surpass 6.5% for 2017.

The “2018 China Social Circumstance Analysis and Forecasts” (2018年中国社会形势分析与预测) blue paper released by the China Academy of Social Sciences states that the Chinese economy has enjoyed steady growth in 2017, with the share of middle-income earners rising rapidly and new jobs hitting a historic high for the period from January to September.

According to the blue paper China’s GDP posted year-on-year growth of 6.9% for the first three quarters of 2017, for an acceleration of 0.2 percentage points compared to the same period the year previously.

Primary industry saw year-on-year growth of 3.7% during the first nine months of the year, while secondary industry and tertiary industry posted gains of 6.3% and 7.8% respectively.

The contribution made by final consumption expenditures to economic growth rose to 64.5% for the first three quarters of 2017, for an increase of 2.8 percentage points compared to the same period in 2016.

For the period from January to August consumer prices posted a year-on-year increase of 1.5%, maintaining their comparatively low growth momentum, while the unemployment rate for 31 major cities in September was 4.83%, for its lowest level since 2017.

In CASS’s analysis there is “no longer any question” that China will achieve GDP growth of at least 6.5% in 2017.