China’s economic growth rate has maintained the growth range of 6.7 percent to 6.9 percent for nine successive quarters. Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its growth forecast for China’s economy to 6.8 percent in 2017 and 6.5 percent in 2018, anticipating that China will retain its unrivaled economic growth rate.
Rising growth forecasts across the board
Aside from IMF, multiple organizations raised their forecasts for China’s economy. For 2017, Singaporean Ocbc Bank raised it from 6.5 to 6.8 percent, and 36 economists at Reuters from 6.6 to 6.8-percent; for 2018, Goldman Sachs forecast a 6.5-percent growth rate, up 0.2 percentage points.
Additionally, financial market stakeholders held a positive outlook on China’s economic prospects, Bloomberg reported, based on many professional preliminary assessments.
Combination of traditional and new drivers
China’s surging new drivers, compounded with the revitalized traditional drivers, jointly propelled its economic growth, said Zhou Jingtong, division head at Bank of China’s Institute of International Finance.
According to statistics publicized by the National Bureau of Statistics, the value added growth rate of industrial enterprises beyond designated size reached 6.7 percent in the first three quarters this year, up 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.
The recent accelerating industrial restructuring and upgrade, along with plant equipment transformation and production line upgrade, have contributed to higher productivity. This further lifted China’s manufacturing to a mid-high level, with an overall increased efficiency and strengthened competitiveness, said Zhang Liqun, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Consumption contributes to economic growth
Consumption demonstrated its rising momentum in driving China’s economic growth. Total retail sales of consumer goods retained a double-digit growth, up 10.4 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, consumption’s contribution rate to economic growth ascended to 64.5 percent, up 2.8 percentage points year-on-year.
China’s industry development has hinged upon consumption upgrade since the policy of reform and opening-up. Being the predominant and most lasting driver for the economy, China’s ever-growing consumer demands will facilitate a new higher-level industrialization, urbanization, agricultural modernization, and eventually the growth of more profitable investment demands, said Zhang.
Cutting-edge innovation
China has been seeing technological innovation accomplishments coming to the fore and spearheading the global innovation wave, including bike sharing, online transactions, big data, and high-speed rail.
Gone are the days when China was merely an imitator, and it is now an exceedingly active player in innovation, credited with its world-class internet-based innovation and other emerging achievements. Innovation has become a lasting and strong driver for economic growth, said Zhao Ping, a director at CCPIT Academy.
China’s economy benefits immensely from its innovative industrial system and expects more development in the long run by virtue of increasingly frequent social innovations, said Wang Ping, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.
