China’s GDP Growth Set to Ease to 6.7% in 2018: Bank of Communications

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A new report from one of China’s big five banks sees the country’s GDP growth slowing to 6.7% in 2018.

The “2018 China Macro-economic and Financial Outlook Report” (2018年中国宏观经济金融展望报告) released by the Bank of Communications earlier this month sees a rise in global GDP growth to around 3.7% in 2018 from 3.4% last year, as both US and Eurozone output continues to improve and demand stages a recovery.

Emerging market economies will see accelerated growth of 4.6% as compared to 4.3% last year, yet could face headwinds as result of resurgent international protectionism and the fragile financial systems of some countries.

The report forecasts a stable performance for the Chinese economy in 2018, with full year 2018 GDP growth easing moderately to 6.7%.

Premier Li Keqiang recently announced that China likely posted full year GDP growth of 6.9% in 2017, following commensurate year-on-year growth for the first half of last year.

Bank of Communications chief economist Lian Ping (连平) is sanguine about China’s economic prospects in 2018, seeing support from structural changes in key drivers, consumption continuing to remain ahead of investment, growth in tertiary industry continuing to outpace secondary industry, as well as the accelerated growth of the digital and “Internet +” economies.