China's economy will grow steadily in the second half of this year, with full-year expansion at between 7 and 9 percent, Xinhua News Agency said, citing Xie Fuzhan (謝伏瞻), deputy director at the State Council's Development Research Center.
Problems such as falling industrial profit and low consumer prices will have little negative effects on economic growth this year, the report said. It did not specify what second-half growth would be in percentage terms.
Grain prices may halt their declines in the second half and the government will adjust prices of utilities and services according to market changes, the report said, citing Zhu Baoliang, chief economist at the State Information Center.
Rising international oil prices may also raise consumer prices in China, he was cited as saying. The mainland economy grew 9.5 percent last year and by the same amount in the first six months of this year.
However, China's long-term economic development may be stymied because of wastage of resources such as water, oil and electricity, Vice-Premier Zeng Peiyan (
"Economic development will be restricted if we don't restrain the waste of resources," Zeng told China Central Television yesterday. "We're at a stage of economic development where we don't have the luxury to be wasteful."
China will adopt economic measures to curb wastage and accelerate the development of new technology to increase the efficient use of existing resources, Zeng said, without providing specific details.
Demand for fuel to run power plants, cars and machinery has risen as the economy has expanded, making China the world's biggest oil consumer behind the US. Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) tightened controls on investment by state-owned companies last year to alleviate power shortages and unclog transport links.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last