Xinhua, Beijing :
The latest data point to a firming Chinese economy, but the progress of reforms will be key for sustained strength and containing risk.
Two separate gauges on Wednesday showed China’s factory activity rose faster than expected in February, with the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index staying in expansionary territory for seven consecutive months.
Following strong rebounds in January’s exports and imports and the producer price index rising to a five-year high, the latest figures once again dispelled worries of a hard landing in the world’s second-largest economy.
Yet it is not a time for celebration as the economic outlook is still clouded by uncertainties, putting policy makers to the test. The economy grew 6.7 percent in 2016, within the government’s target range set for the year. But the expansion was, to some extent, lifted by the government’s pro-growth fiscal and monetary policies.
Monetary easing aimed to counter a deceleration of investment that had dragged on the economy, as property developers pulled back on construction amid an overhang of unsold houses and as factories slowed expansion in the face of falling sales.
New loans extended by Chinese banks had for three consecutive years surpassed those in 2009, when the country went on a spending spree to help the economy weather the adverse impacts of the global financial meltdown.
The latest data point to a firming Chinese economy, but the progress of reforms will be key for sustained strength and containing risk.
Two separate gauges on Wednesday showed China’s factory activity rose faster than expected in February, with the official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index staying in expansionary territory for seven consecutive months.
Following strong rebounds in January’s exports and imports and the producer price index rising to a five-year high, the latest figures once again dispelled worries of a hard landing in the world’s second-largest economy.
Yet it is not a time for celebration as the economic outlook is still clouded by uncertainties, putting policy makers to the test. The economy grew 6.7 percent in 2016, within the government’s target range set for the year. But the expansion was, to some extent, lifted by the government’s pro-growth fiscal and monetary policies.
Monetary easing aimed to counter a deceleration of investment that had dragged on the economy, as property developers pulled back on construction amid an overhang of unsold houses and as factories slowed expansion in the face of falling sales.
New loans extended by Chinese banks had for three consecutive years surpassed those in 2009, when the country went on a spending spree to help the economy weather the adverse impacts of the global financial meltdown.
