Growth in spending on factories, real estate and other fixed assets in the first seven months of the year fell to 24.9 percent, down from 25.5 percent for the first half, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.

Retail sales rose 17.9 percent, down from 18.2 percent growth for the first half of the year.

The consumer price index, or CPI, rose 3.3 percent over a year earlier, its fastest rate this year as summer flooding wrecked crops and disrupted shipping.
The jump was driven by a 6.8 percent surge in food costs. But analysts expect inflation to fade quickly.

A statistics bureau spokesman said the declines in economic indicators for July were “not big” and could be positive for official efforts to improve China’s economic efficiency. He gave no sign the government plans to change policy.

The central bank reported Wednesday that total lending by China’s banks fell to 532.8 billion yuan ($78.7 billion), down nearly 12 percent from June’s 603.4 billion.

Also in July, growth in exports fell to 38.1 percent from June’s 43.9 percent. Australian miners and other companies that have enjoyed a windfall from Chinese demand have warned that their sales growth will slow.

Source : Konaxis

Fixed asset investment for the first 10 months of the year surged 33.1 percent compared to the year-ago period, Sheng said.

Exports fell 13.8 percent in October to $110.8 billion from the same month last year, the smallest decrease in 10 months, according to government figures. Imports dropped by 6.4 percent to $86.8 billion over the same period, a slightly faster pace than in September.

Analysts said the further decline in imports was due to lower commodity prices.

The gush of lending has inflated China’s stock and real estate markets massively this year. However, Chinese banks curtailed new loans sharply in October, by more than 50 percent to 253 billion yuan ($37 billion) compared to September, amid growing concerns the easy lending would create asset bubbles.

“The new good change in October is that the trend in the contribution of consumption to economic growth is increasing and we believe that in the fourth quarter it will increase,” Sheng said.

Source : Konaxis

The fall compares to a 19.4-percent increase during the January-August period last year.

The NBS statistics cover the profits of major industrial enterprises, defined as those with more than 5 million yuan in revenue from their main business annually.

The bureau said profits in state-owned industrial companies declined 25.2 percent to 504.5 billion yuan. However, profits in privately-owned industrial firms rose 6.6 percent year-on-year to 439.9 billion yuan.

Profits in the power generation sector increased by 194 percent during the January-August period. Oil refineries and coking plants moved to a profit of 71.2 billion yuan from a loss of 94.2 billion yuan in the same period last year.

Profits in other sectors, including oil and gas exploration, steel and non-ferrous metal smelting, dropped more than 50 percent.

Source : Konaxis

The August growth rate was 1.5 percentage points up from July.

The output of light industry, including the garment, textile and food sectors among others, rose 9.8 percent in August over the same month last year. The output of heavy industry increased 13.2 percent from a year earlier.

Power generation in August rose 9.3 percent over the same month in 2008 to hit 344.3 billion kwh. The output of coal and crude oil respectively rose 14.6 percent and 1.6 percent compared with August 2008.

In August, outputs of industrials invested in by foreign companies and investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan rose 8.0 percent from a year earlier, compared with a growth rate of 5 percent in July.

According to the NBS, China’s industrial output from January to August rose 8.1 percent over the same period last year. The growth rate was 7.6 percentage points lower than that in the 2008 January-August period, but up 0.6 percentage points from the first seven months of this year.

Source : Konaxis

He estimated industrial enterprise profits might bounce back to a growth of 30 percent year on year in the fourth quarter.

Large-scale industrial enterprises in 22 Chinese provinces saw their profits decline 21.2 percent year on year to 894.14 billion yuan in the first half, but the decline rate was 11 percentage points lower from the first quarter, which shows signs of recovery, according to National Bureau of Statistics figures.

Profit in 27 of the total 39 industrial sectors had reported a profit increase or at least a slowdown in decline.

A senior analyst said that the overall economic stabilization, the expansion of investment this year and low raw material prices helped the profit rise of industrial enterprises.

Source : Konaxis