China’s economy has halted its slowing trend, the head of the country’s powerful economic planning agency said yesterday, adding that he was confident GDP growth would exceed 7.5 percent this year.
Zhang Ping (張平), head of the National Development and Reform Commission, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 18th Communist Party Congress which is meeting to chose a new leadership.
“Signs of stabilization in the economy were getting more obvious in October. We are fully confident that we can achieve the economic growth target for this year. In other words, we are able to maintain economic growth of above 7.5 percent,” he said.
China’s economy strode further along the road of recovery from its slowest growth in three years, data for last month showed on Friday, as infrastructure investment accelerated and output from factories ran at its fastest in five months.
Data yesterday showed China’s trade surplus ballooned to its biggest in 45 months last month as export growth darted to a five-month high above 11 percent, surpassing expectations and adding to other data that suggest a less urgent need for new economic stimulus measures.
The figures provided further signs for the country’s top policymakers meeting in Beijing to anoint new leaders for the coming decade that a long slide in economic growth may be over.
Annual economic growth slowed to 7.4 percent in the third quarter — its weakest since early 2009 — leaving the world’s second-largest economy on track to mark its most sluggish year since 1999.
However, central bank head Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) cautioned on Thursday that external risks still loomed large and the People’s Bank of China has policy room to respond if necessary.
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