Chinese President Hu Jintao said Beijing is looking to maintain growth, while a senior academic adviser to the central bank predicted the slowdown would bottom out in the second quarter, Bloomberg reported. “We are confident that China will maintain steady and robust growth and thus make a solid contribution to global economic growth,” Hu said in a written interview with a Mexican newspaper. Separately, Chen Yulu, an academic adviser to the People’s Bank of China, said at a forum in Beijing on Saturday that “the second quarter should be the lowest point” this year. Full-year 2012 growth should still be around 8%, Chen added. Growth dropped to 8.1% in the first quarter, and a slew of bad economic news in April and May sparked concern that the downturn may be deeper than anticipated. Credit Suisse estimates China’s full-year growth at just 7.7%; other analysts expect around 8%.
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