New Round of Prosperity Cycle has Emerged

The first half of this year, China's economy saw a significant turn for the better. China's economy has started to reverse the sustained slowdown of economic growth and started to rebound thanks to the series of macroeconomic policies to expand domestic demand, stimulate consumption by the combination of fiscal and monetary policies. Many experts and scholars think that a new round of prosperity cycle has emerged.

The data from the National Statistics Bureau shows that during the first half, China's GDP reached 3.95 trillion yuan, a 8.2% rise in the constant price. It grew 0.6 percentage point faster compare to the same period last year. The economic growth has been spurred not only by investments but the combined growth of consumption, export, and investment. The total value of consumer retail sales grew 10.1%, 3.7% higher than the same period last year. Due to the improvement in the international economies and the policy to increase refunds on export tax, the total value of export was US$114.5 billion, a rise of 38.3%, while imports totaled US$102.1 billion, a rise of 36.2%. The trade balance was US$12.4 billion, up US$4.4 billion from last year. The investments into fixed assets roses by 11% due to the proactive fiscal policy. Investments by state-owned enterprises and other types of firms totaled 753.8 billion yuan, a rise of 12.1%. Investments by collectives and individuals roses by 7.9%, much higher than of last year level, indicating that individuals are slowly starting to invest.

As the economy grows, the efficiency of companies is improves. From January to May, the comprehensive index of industrial enterprises was 107.3 points, 16.4 point increase from the same period last year. The total profits increased 1.3-fold, while the number of enterprises suffering losses decreased by 7.7%. The proportion of industrial production to sales reverted to normal levels. The industrial products sales rate during the first half-year hit 96.8%, 1.15 percentage point higher than that of the same period last year.





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