China's economy keeps positive momentum in stable growth, making the foundation for achieving the whole year economic growth target, China's National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday when releasing a series of economic data.
China's fixed-asset investment or FAI grew 7.3 percent year on year to in the first ten months of this year, reaching 51.78 trillion yuan or 7.8 trillion U.S. dollars, down from 7.5 percent for the January-September period, according to official data.
In the same period, China's private fixed-asset investment increased 5.8 percent year on year to 31.37 trillion yuan, NBS said, noting the growth rate was slightly lower than the 6-percent increase for the first nine months.
The FAI in private sector accounted for 60.6 percent of the total FAI, compared with 60.5 percent for the January-September period.
The stable FAI shows a better structure, NBS said, noting that from January to October, the investment up 13.1 percent year-on-year in the primary industry, 2.7 percent in the secondary industry and 10 percent in the service industry.
NBS also post that China's industrial value-added output expanded 6.2 percent year on year in October, slowing from a 6.6-percent growth in September.
China's retail sales of consumer goods grew 10 percent year on year in October, with a high growth of online retailing.
In the first ten months, the national online retailing jumped 34 percent year on year to more than 5.53 trillion yuan, 8.3 percentage points higher than the growth made in the same period of the last year.
Growth in China’s imports remained resilient in October, suggesting demand in the world’s second-largest economy is being sustained in spite of the government’s campaigns to cool the housing market and curb industrial production to reduce pollution.
Inbound shipments rose by 17.2% year-on-year in October to $151 billion, the General Administration of Customs said Wednesday.
Although that’s down from an 18.6% pace in September, it compares with a drop of 1.6% in the same period last year.
Exports also held up, rising by 6.9% year-on-year to $189 billion. While that trailed a gain of 8.1% in September, it compares with a 7.9% drop in the same period last year, indicating the global economy is continuing to strengthen.
China’s trade surplus rose to $38.2 billion in October from $28.6 billion the previous month.
The politically sensitive surplus with the U.S., China’s biggest export market and second-largest trading partner, stood at $26.6 billion, the second-highest on record, after September’s $28.2 billion.
The figures were released hours before U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in China on the third leg of his Asia tour.
Trade and the U.S.’s deficit with China will be among the top issues for discussion with President Xi Jinping during his three-day visit.
Data from China’s customs administration put the gap in the first 10 months of the year at $223 billion, although U.S. government figures show the deficit was $274 billion in the first nine months of 2017.
