China tries to revive economy despite daunting challenges (3)

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National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) chief Ma Jiantang ascribed sound economic fundamentals to four factors.

First, China maintained the world's fastest economic growth rate. Although it fell by 2.3 percentage points year on year, the 9.9 percent GDP growth in the first three quarters remained much higher than those of Western countries and was still at the average of the past 30 years of the country's reform and opening up.

Second, China had succeeded with commodity price controls. The consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, eased to 4.6 percent in September from the same period last year. It hit a 12-year high of 8.7 percent in February.

At the end of the month, the broad money supply (corporate and individual deposits plus cash in circulation) increased 15.29 percent from the same period of last year. The rate was the lowest in three years. The growth in narrow money (current deposits plus cash in circulation) supply slowed to 9.43 percent.

Lu Zhengwei, chief economist with the Industrial Bank, predicted a CPI rise of 4.2 to 4.4 percent in October, based on weak market demand and a decrease in money supply.

Third, China had increasing foreign exchange reserves. China's current account surplus rose by 18 percent to 191.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first half, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the foreign exchange regulator. The balance sheet revealed foreign exchange reserves of almost 1.81 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of June.

Fourth, China had good employment rates. Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) spokesman Yin Chengji said the country created 9.36 million jobs in the first three quarters, and helped another 4.09 million laid-off workers find new jobs.

By the end of September, China's registered unemployment rate was unchanged from the end of last year at 4 percent, with about 8.3 million unemployed.

"We should be confident in the country's economic outlook," said Ma Jiantang. "The country has rich resource reserves, great market potential, vigorous enterprises and the government has strong macro-control abilities."
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