China: GDP 6.1%

firecs

HSI and ES future are heading down.....

oldfox

rooky

看样子明天可向在纽约上市的中国股下手了。

qiangge

:(13)::lol

bigbadwolf

China’s Economy Expands at the Slowest Pace in Almost a Decade

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By Kevin Hamlin

April 16 (Bloomberg) -- China’s gross domestic product, battered by collapsing exports, grew at the slowest pace in almost ten years, probably marking the low point for the world’s third-biggest economy.

GDP expanded 6.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, after a 6.8 percent gain in the previous three months, the statistics bureau said in Beijing today. The figure compares with the 6.2 percent median estimate of 13 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

China’s economy shows signs that Premier Wen Jiabao’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus plan is working, fueling a surge in bank lending and spurring the Shanghai Composite Index to an eight-month high. The State Council said yesterday that it will cut export taxes for some electronics products and offer cheaper credit to manufacturers to spur shipments overseas.

“The recovery is still at a very fragile stage,” said Yu Song, an economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in Hong Kong. “The tug of war between upside risks from domestic investments and downside risks from weaker external demand will continue.”

Today’s report coincides with a statement from U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that China isn’t a currency manipulator. His stance eases pressure on China to allow its currency to rise, hurting efforts to revive exports.

From July 1 to the end of last year, the yuan rose just 0.4 percent against the dollar. Its value has been little changed since the beginning of the year, closing yesterday at 6.8325 per dollar.

Global Recessions

China’s expansion lagged behind its 9 percent growth for all of 2008 and 13 percent gain in 2007. It also contrasted with recessions in economies around the world. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicts a 6.3 percent expansion for China this year, compared with a 4 percent contraction in the U.S. and a 6.6 percent decline in Japan.

There are signs that other economies may have seen the worst. The Federal Reserve said yesterday the U.S. contraction slowed across several of the nation’s biggest regional economies last month. In Japan, economists from Morgan Stanley and Macquarie Securities Ltd. increased their GDP forecasts, saying the economy would contract less-than-expected after Prime Minister Taro Aso announced a 15.4 trillion yen ($154 billion) stimulus package.

Confidence in the global economy rose to an 11-month high, a Bloomberg survey of users on six continents showed yesterday.

Share Market Rally

The Shanghai Composite Index of stocks has climbed 39 percent this year, making it the second-best performer among 88 indexes tracked by Bloomberg.

Some of the statistics in today’s report pointed to a recovery. Industrial production expanded 8.3 percent in March, compared with 3.8 percent in the first two months. Urban fixed- asset investment climbed 30.3 percent in March.

Spending on real-estate development grew 4.1 percent in the first quarter, up from a 1 percent gain in the first two months, a report showed this week.

Companies are also reporting how the stimulus package is helping. Beijing-based General Steel Holdings Inc. said its main factory in Hancheng city, Shaanxi province, signed contracts to sell 560,000 metric tons of steel for stimulus-related projects by late March, an amount equal to 30 percent of total output last year.

Auto Sales

General Motors Corp., the biggest overseas automaker in China, raised its forecast for the nation’s auto sales this year after the government took steps to spur demand and provided subsidies in rural areas.

China’s GDP in the first quarter was pulled lower by sinking exports as a global recession cut demand for textiles and electronics, prompting thousands of factories to close and leaving more than 20 million migrant laborers without work.

“Exports will continue to drag on growth at least until the final quarter of the year,” said Mark Williams, an economist with Capital Economics in London. If there is a recovery this year, it will “be lackluster at best.”

Today’s report contrasts with a year ago when the economy expanded 10.6 percent and Premier Wen said that inflation running at more than 8 percent was the nation’s biggest problem.

Consumer prices fell 1.2 percent in March from a year earlier, compared with a drop of 1.6 percent in February.

Borrowing Costs

Cooling inflation provided the People’s Bank of China with space to lower the one-year lending rate by 216 basis points to 5.31 percent last year and reserve requirements by 2 percentage points to 15.5 percent for large banks.

The bank also lifted caps on lending toward the end of 2008. As a result, new loans jumped more than six times to 1.89 trillion yuan ($277 billion) in March from a year earlier, raising concern among some economists that the cash flowing into the economy will inflate asset bubbles, and promote wasteful spending.

“The next policy move needs to be taming credit growth and local governments’ investment drive,” said Wang Tao, an economist at UBS AG in Beijing. “This is needed to reduce the risk of massive resource misallocation, asset price bubbles and damage to the banking system.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Hamlin in Beijing on khamlin@bloomberg.net;

izan

2月份，全国规模以上工业实现利润2191亿元，同比下降37.3%。在39个工业大类行业中，23个行业利润下降，4个行业出现亏损。但部分行业仍保持增长或扭亏为盈。纺织服装业实现利润增长15.6%，家具制造业增长24.7%，石油加工及炼焦业由去年同期净亏损194亿元转为盈利117亿元。




3. 固定资产投资增长加快，投资结构有所改善。一季度，全社会固定资产投资28129亿元，同比增长28.8%，比上年同期加快4.2个百分点。其中，城镇固定资产投资23562亿元，增长28.6%（3月份增长30.3%），加快2.7个百分点；农村固定资产投资4567亿元，增长29.4%，加快11.1个百分点。在城镇固定资产投资中，第一产业和第三产业投资增长快于第二产业，三次产业投资分别增长85.0%、26.8%和29.1%。分地区看，中西部投资增长明显快于东部，东部地区城镇投资增长19.8%，中部地区增长34.3%，西部地区增长46.1%。




4.国内市场销售平稳较快增长，县及县以下市场销售快于城市。一季度，社会消费品零售总额29398亿元，同比增长15.0%（3月份增长14.7%），扣除物价因素，实际增长15.9%，同比加快3.6个百分点，比上年全年加快1.1个百分点。其中，城市消费品零售额19834亿元，增长14.1%；县及县以下消费品零售额9564亿元，增长17.0%。限额以上批发和零售业中，家具类零售额同比增长24.1%，建筑及装潢材料类增长20.2%，汽车类增长11.1%。



5.居民消费价格同比下降，工业品出厂价格环比降幅缩小。一季度，居民消费价格同比下降0.6%（3月份同比下降1.2%，环比下降0.3%）。其中，城市下降0.9%，农村持平。分类别看，食品价格上涨0.5%，烟酒及用品上涨2.0%，家庭设备用品及维修服务上涨2.1%，医疗保健和个人用品上涨1.3%；衣着下降2.4%，交通和通信下降2.7%，娱乐教育文化用品及服务下降0.5%，居住下降2.9%。一季度，商品零售价格同比下降0.8%（3月份同比下降1.5%）。工业品出厂价格同比下降4.6%，环比降幅逐月缩小，其中1月份环比下降1.4%，2月份环比下降0.7%，3月份环比下降0.3%。原材料、燃料、动力购进价格同比下降7.1%（3月份同比下降8.9%）。房屋销售价格同比下降1.1%（3月份同比下降1.3%）。




6.对外贸易大幅下降，实际使用外商直接投资减少。一季度，对外贸易进出口总额4287亿美元，同比下降24.9%。其中，出口2455亿美元，下降19.7%；进口1832亿美元，下降30.9%。进出口相抵，顺差623亿美元,同比增加209亿美元。一季度，实际使用外商直接投资218亿美元，同比减少56亿美元。



7.城镇新增就业减少，城乡居民收入继续增长。1-2月，全国城镇新增就业人员162万人，比去年同期减少21万人，完成全年目标任务的18.0%；下岗失业人员实现再就业71万人，完成全年目标任务的14.2%；就业困难人员再就业19万人，完成全年目标任务的19.0%。一季度，城镇居民人均可支配收入4834元，同比增长10.2%，扣除价格因素，实际增长11.2%。农村居民人均现金收入1622元，增长8.6%，扣除价格因素，实际增长8.6%。



8.货币信贷增速加快，外汇储备有所增加。3月末，广义货币供应量（M2）余额53.1万亿元，同比增长25.5%，比上年末加快7.7个百分点；狭义货币供应量（M1）17.7万亿元，增长17.0%，加快8.0个百分点；流通中现金（M0）33746亿元，增长10.9%，回落1.8个百分点。金融机构各项贷款余额349555亿元，比年初增加45812亿元，同比多增32485亿元；各项存款余额522619亿元，比年初增加56163亿元，同比多增29787亿元。3月末，国家外汇储备19537亿美元，比上年末增加77亿美元。




当前国民经济运行中的主要困难是，受国际金融危机的影响，出口需求下降幅度较大，造成企业效益下降，财政收入减少，就业困难增多，经济存在着较大的下行压力。下阶段要继续深入贯彻落实科学发展观，按照中央关于经济工作的决策部署，切实落实已出台的各项政策措施，不断完善宏观调控政策，努力实现国民经济平稳较快发展。