China's economy is expected to grow steadily for the rest of the year, and its growth momentum remains strong despite seasonal challenges, experts said.
Their comments came after the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday the country's third-quarter economic growth came in at 4.9 percent on a yearly basis, down from 7.9 percent in the second and marking the slowest pace in a year. The economy grew by 9.8 percent for the January to September period.
Xu Xianchun, a professor of economics at Tsinghua University, said the slowdown for the third quarter can mainly be attributed to sporadic COVID-19 flare-ups and heavy rainfall in some regions. Yet overall the country's growth momentum remains strong and has pronounced new features. To illustrate, consumption demand is playing a major role in driving growth. For the first three quarters, consumption has contributed to 64.8 percent in growth, 3.1 percentage points higher than last year.
"China has strong resilience in growth for its huge market potential and strong productivity," Xu noted. "While the softening base effect from last year poses certain challenges for the rest of the year, an overall healthy job market and steady increase in household income have laid the foundation for stronger consumption amid a stabilized epidemic situation."
Noting the robust growth of the country's new economy and new businesses models have visibly catalyzed growth in recent years, particularly last year when the pandemic situation was most severe, Xu suggested more policy efforts needs to be put in place to help them thrive and leverage their strength. In particular, efforts in enabling the business climate shall be continued. Digitization of businesses shall be pushed forward, and more efforts shall be made in innovation and scientific research for businesses to nurture new growth drivers.
Yao Jingyuan, an adjunct researcher of the Counselors' Office of the State Council, believes there are still plenty of policy tools to cope with downward pressure.
"We've noticed the country's consumer price index rose by a mere 0.6 percent from the January to September period, well under the government's goal of 3 percent set for this year," Yao said. "This provides room for policy maneuvers on the monetary front. Also, the considerable amount of local government bonds to be issued for the fourth quarter, once issued and generating activities in the real economy, can effectively drive up investment."
