China continues to present envialbe economic figures against an increasingly ominous backdrop of an ailing global economy that will likely be exacerbated by a US retaliation for the terror attacks last week.
The National Bureau of Statistic on Monday released China's economic indicators for August and said that fixed-asset investment surged 21.4 percent on a year-on-year basis.
The bureau released other major economic barometers for last month: industrial output advanced 8.1 percent over the same month of last year; retail sales by 9.6 percent; and consumer prices by 1.0 percent.
Officials and economists said that all those figures indicate the economy is well on track for the targeted 7 percent growth in 2001.
China's gross domestic product grew 7.9 percent during the first half of the year, a rate that makes the economy remain a beacon in Asia. It is an eye-catching performance even for the entire global economy, which has been grappling with difficulties brought on by a US economic downturn and a stalled Japanese recovery to maintain an annual growth rate above 3 percent.
Before the two planes flattened the World Trade Centre, experts asserted that the US economy would pick up speed around the beginning of 2002 and so would the world economy.
But the attacks in New York and Washington have blurred those prospects.
China's exports growth rate, overshadowed by the global economic downturn, plunged from 27.8 percent of 2000 to 7.3 percent in August of this year. The trade sector will be further dented if the global economic situation deteriorates.
But the overwhelming weight of the domestic demand in China's economy will likely cushion the impact from the tougher external environment.
The investment figure released Monday indicate that the government's four-year-old stimulus package, with massive input in infrastructure at its core, has maintained its role as the engine of the economy.
As the government has been launching new projects in a stable flow this year, the money injected for the completion of these projects will make investment an effective economic driving force.
Finance minister Xiang Huaicheng has said China will stick to its pro-active fiscal policy next year.
Government investment is not alone in buoying the Chinese economy.
Economists said this year's consumption growth rate has been respectable so far.
After lingering in negative territory for more than three years, China's consumer price index stayed above zero so far this year. It reflected a stable confidence from investors and consumers.
(china daily 09/18/2001)
