Interview: Higher-than-expected growth points to resilience of Chinese economy, says economist

CAPE TOWN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The higher-than-expected economic growth in the third quarter attested to the resilience of the Chinese economy, said a South African economist on Wednesday.

China's GDP expanded 4.9 percent year on year in the third quarter, up by 1.3 percent from the previous quarter. It grew 5.2 percent year on year in the first three quarters of 2023, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

"The Chinese economy expanded by 4.9 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, compared with the consensus forecast of a 4.4-percent year-on-year increase and my forecast of a 4.6-percent year-on-year gain," Helmo Preuss, an economist who founded Forecaster Ecosa, an economic and market research company in South Africa, told Xinhua in a written interview.

"The resilience and growing momentum of the Chinese economy are highlighted by the quarterly figures, which the NBS said expanded by 1.3 percent in the third quarter or more than twice the 0.5-percent gain in the second quarter," said Preuss, who has been studying the Chinese economy since 1992.

Preuss attributed China's economic development potential and resilience to its ongoing rebalancing efforts.

"China is in the process of rebalancing its economy to a more domestic services-orientated economy," he said.

On the development outlook of the world's second-largest economy, Preuss forecasted that growth in services and high technology industries will be the main drivers of China's economic growth in the future.

He pointed out that while China's total fixed-asset investment went up 3.1 percent year on year in the first nine months, investment in high-tech industries achieved a year-on-year growth of 11.4 percent during the same period.

"I expect growth of the retail sales of services to be near 20 percent in 2023," said the economist.