China's economy showing signs of stabilising -state planner

by **Cals** Mon 07 Sep 2015, 22:24

China's economy showing signs of stabilising -state planner

By Reuters / Reuters | September 7, 2015 : 12:35 PM MYT

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Sept 7): China's power usage, rail freight and property market have all shown improvement since August, indicating that the economy is stabilising, the country's top economic planning agency said on Monday.

The effects of supportive policies, including interest rate cuts, property market stimulus and local government debt swaps, will feed into the economy over the next few months and help underpin growth, the [size=16]National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on its website.

"The power usage, rail freight, as well as real estate prices and turnover have all improved into August, indicating the economy is stabilising amid fluctuations," the NDRC said.

"The economy is expected to maintain steady growth and we are able to achieve annual economic growth target," it added.

A flurry of recent soft indicators - and a collapse in China's stock markets - had heightened fears of a hard landing for the world's second-biggest economy and sent global financial markets into a tailspin.

China's economy, which grew 7% in the first half from a year earlier and in line with the government's target for the year, is headed for its slowest economic expansion in 25 years in 2015.

The recent downbeat data, however, has raised the risk the government could miss the full-year growth target.

The National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday that it had revised China's economic growth rate in 2014 to 7.3%, from the previously-released figure of 7.4%.

The NDRC cited data from the State Grid as saying that China's total power consumption in August rose 2.47% on the year — the fastest growth so far this year and steady growth was likely to continue in September.

The average daily rail freight volume rose 1.6% in August from July, the NDRC said

China's exports are likely to swing into positive growth in August from a 8.3% drop in July, the agency said without giving specifics.
The customs office is due to release August trade figures on Tuesday. Analysts polled by Reuters expected exports to drop 6.0% in August, compared with a year earlier.

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