China’s economy grows 11.5% in Q3

Despite the blistering pace, the government said that a range of measures to cool the economy were taking effect. „The national economy kept steady and fast growth... the effect of macro-control policies is emerging,” bureau spokesman Li Xiaochao said at a briefing in Beijing. China is the world’s fourth-largest economy, and is expected to soon overtake Germany as number three.

Industrial output expanded by 18.5% in the first three quarters of 2007, while in the month of September alone it was up by 18.9% frim a year earlier, the bureau said. Industrial production is driven partly by booming exports, reflected in a trade surplus of 185.7 billion dollars in the first nine months of the year. The bureau confirmed that inflation in the first nine months was 4.1%, with a 6.2% spike in September. It also confirmed that fixed-asset investments expanded by 25.7% in the first nine months of 2007 from the same period a year ago.

The figure marked a slight easing from the first half of the year, when investments in fixed assets were up 25.9%. Fixed-asset investments cover mostly state-controlled enterprises’ spending on plant and equipment, a major source of growth in the world’s fourth-largest economy. The number for the first nine months had previously been released by the central bank. Retail sales in the first nine months of the year were 15.9%, with a rise of 17% in the month of September alone, the bureau said. The nine-month retail figure, a main gauge of consumer spending, had also been announced earlier by the central bank. (channelnewsasia)