HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics in an emailed statement said a purchasing managers’ index rose to a seasonally adjusted 56.1. The measure is based on a survey of more than 400 manufacturing companies. Which means that growth has accelerated to more than 10%.
All of which may deepen concern that inflation pressures are building and parts of the Chinese economy could overheat this year.
Liu Mingkang, China’s top banking regulator, said today that while asset bubbles are a threat, banks have “more than” enough capital and should extend loans to consumers and smaller businesses to sustain growth.
Sun Mingchun, chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong said, “China’s economy is continuing a V-shaped recovery and economic growth may have quickened to 11 percent in the fourth quarter. There are early signs that the economy may be entering an overheating stage.”
All of which may mean that China’s economy will have expanded over 10% – most guess 10.4% – in the fourth quarter of 2009 and there are forecasts of a 10.5% growth in the coming year.
Note that Central bank adviser Fan Gang, seen above, on November 18 cautioned that a “double-digit” gain wouldn’t be good in 2010 amid the rising risk of bubbles in stock, real estate and commodity prices.
Business Week reported that according to the statistics bureau industrial companies’ profits rose 7.8% in the first 11 months of last year to a record $379 billion.