China's economy grew by 6.7 per cent between April and June 2003 compared with a year earlier,
reported People's Doily, citing the deputy director of the National Bureau of Statistics, Qin
Xiaohua. This was the lowest second quarter GDP increase since 1992. Growth for the first
quarter was 9.9 per cent and 8.2 per cent fur the first half. Qiu pre-dicted that growth for the
whole year would still top the 8 per cent recorded in 2002.
The Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences has lowered its torecast of China's economic growth rate for 2003 to
taper cent from 8.6 per cent as a result of the negative impact of the Sars outbreak, Xinhua
reported. A report issued by a group of economic experts in the academy said that the
influence of Sars on China's development would be less than that of the Asian financial
crisis in 1997 and would be easier to overcome than the impact of September
II.
The report also forecast that capital investment in fixed assets would grow by
14.5 per cent this year. Meanwhile, retail sales are expected to rise by 10.4 per cent and the
consumer price index by 0.3 per cent. Exports will rise by 14.1 per cent and exceed imports
by about US$10bn.