Foreign media comment on China's economic semi-annual report

Recently, China's economic semi-annual report was published in 2019. What signals does a series of data convey? What will China's economy bring to the world? The international community attaches great importance to it. GDP increased by 6.3% in the first half of the year -- "China's overall economic operation is in a stable range".

After preliminary accounting, China's gross domestic product (GDP) in the first half of 2019 was 45093.3 billion yuan, an increase of 6.3% on a year-on-year basis at comparable prices. This news has quickly become the focus of foreign media coverage and interpretation.

Financial Times website article pointed out that "a 13.6 trillion dollar economy, the first half of the growth of 6.3% of the news, should not cause people to worry about the imminent crisis. The scale and resilience of China's economy today are quite different from those of the early 1990s. In 2018, China's GDP growth is equivalent to the size of the Australian economy as a whole. According to the current trend, China's GDP growth this year will surpass that of Australia. As the second largest economy in the world, China remains the largest source of global economic growth. At present, Sino-US trade frictions have become an indispensable background for international public opinion to pay close attention to China's economy. In view of some misinterpretations of China's economic growth data, many foreign media have expressed rational views. The BBC quoted economists as saying that China's economic growth in the second quarter of 2019 was 6.2%, which is not a low figure. The slowdown of China's economic growth is mainly due to China's macro-control economic policies, rather than the impact of trade frictions.

The Financial Times also holds a similar view: "Tariffs and US export bans have caused some losses to Chinese companies, but their impact is not as worrying as the figures seem. In fact, trade has long ceased to be a source of dynamism in determining China's economic growth. So far this year, China's current account surplus is only 1.5% of GDP, far below the 10% peak 10 years ago.

According to the Japanese Economic News website, although China's economic growth slowed down in the second quarter compared with the first quarter from the year-on-year data, China's economic growth in the second quarter was actually faster than that in the first quarter according to the ring-to-ring annualized rate statistical method customarily adopted by Japan and other developed countries. What are the key signals of China's economic data transmission? The international community has generally captured the word "stability". Reuters believes that China's industrial, investment and consumption performance in June far exceeded expectations, releasing a signal that the overall economy is operating in a stable range, and that China's economy is expected to continue to stabilize in the second half of the year. Russia's satellite news agency said that China's economic situation in the first half of the year was generally stable, in line with expectations, and the annual economic growth may be between 6.2% and 6.3%. Consumption and service industries are stable --"China is building a stronger economy".

Retail sales of social consumer goods increased by 8.4% in the first half of the year over the same period of last year, and final consumption expenditure contributed 60.1% to economic growth; added value of tertiary industry accounted for 54.9% of GDP, which increased by 0.5 percentage points over the same period of last year; per capita disposable income of Chinese residents increased by 0.5 percentage points. Real growth of 6.5%, resident income growth outpaced GDP... China's economic "half-yearly examination" transcript is not only stable, but also full of gold.

"At the present stage of China's economic development, despite the slowdown in exports, domestic services and consumption are driving economic growth, which is an excellent news." Forbes magazine said that China's domestic demand has grown enough to replace exports as the main engine of economic growth. Services currently account for the largest share of GDP, and China is making rapid innovative transformation with the help of the growing urban middle class and cutting-edge digital technology.

"Chinese consumers are doing well." China's total retail sales grew by 9.8% in June, exceeding the estimated 8.5% and 8.6% in May, according to a July 16 issue of Barron Weekly magazine, which is an "exciting and strong performance". The article also cites industry insiders'analysis and points out that "China's macroeconomic performance is not bad, the largest part of the economy - consumption and service industries are stable, and employment is stable." Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) reported July 15 that in 11 of the 16 quarters from January 2015 to December 2018, consumption contributed more than 60% to China's economic growth. "The growing importance of Chinese consumers in supporting economic growth means that Chinese manufacturers are selling more and more goods to domestic consumers." The media also quoted senior Yale researcher Stephen Roach as saying that China's larger and faster-growing service industry has provided resilience for economic development.

"China's economic growth has been reducing its dependence on trade." According to McKinsey, China's exports accounted for only 9% of its output in 2017, compared with 17% in 2007. This shows that China has become more self-reliant and less affected by the rest of the world. "I think it's one of the things that China is trying to do - to build a stronger and more diverse economy," said Oliver Tomby, chairman of McKinsey Asia.

"China's economy is rebalancing." Lawrence Boone, chief economist of the OECD, commented. "China continues to drive global economic growth"

boosted world confidence on July 15, when China's semi-annual economic report came out, Reuters reported that "Asian stock markets rose on the same day and investors were relieved. Because inspiring data from China show that Beijing has stepped up its stimulus efforts in this world.