By Vera Sam Anyagafu
The Consul General of the Peoples’ Republic of China to Nigeria Ambassador Chao Xiaolinag, has disclosed that China’s gross domestic product（GDP） expanded 6.8 per cent in the first quarter and 6.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2018, representing 12th straight quarter that the GDP rate has stayed within the range from 6.7 per cent to 6.9 per cent, well above the government’s annual growth target of around 6.5 per cent.
Discussing with newsmen, Xiaoliang said that China’s national economic performance, has, in the first seven months of 2018, remained stable with a sound momentum despite severe challenges and complex environment at both home and abroad.
“China’s economy is making progress in both transformation and upgrading. Generally speaking, China’s national economy in the first half of the year (H1) has been running soundly within a reasonable range.
The new impetus for economy is increasing, alongside continued improvement in both quality and efficiency”, he said, adding that, “Despite fact that, external uncertainties increased and China’s structural adjustment is going through a critical stage, China’s economy remained resilient, as indicators were solid and the pace of structural transformation also picked up.
At the same time, reform and opening up has been injecting new impetus into economic growth, and I am optimistic that in the future, China will stick to supply-side structural reform, and will keep pursuing high-quality development with improved economic performance.”
Xiaoliang who was expressive in the increased number of employed people in urban areas of the country, which he said totaled 8.80 million, 2,500 thousand, more than the 80 per cent of the expected annual target, even as the survey-based urban unemployment rate maintained a relatively low level, also disclosed that the first seven months of 2018, witnessed robust foreign trade.
“Foreign trade showed strong resilience with robust imports and stable exports, which indicates that China has stood up to the impact from the trade friction with the US. In the first seven months, the total value of import and export was 16.72 trillion yuan , and total value of export was 8,894.4 billion yuan, up by 5.0%, and the total value of import was 7,826.4 billion yuan, up by 12.9 per cent.
And with this, trade balance came to 1.07 trillion yuan in surplus and decreased by 30.6 per cent. Interestingly, China’s foreign trade with BRICS countries and countries along the Belt and Road increased to 12.4per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively”, the CG said.
He went further to state that China’s industrial output expanded by 6 per cent from January to July 2018 and that the value added high-tech manufacturing, equipment manufacturing and strategic emerging industry grew by 11.6 per cent and 9.0 per cent respectively.
“The production of new energy vehicles, industrial robots, and integrated circuits grew by 68.6 per cent, 21.0 per cent and14.5 per cent. And the total profits registered by industrial enterprises above the designated size totaled 3, 388.2 billion yuan, up by 17.2% year on year, while information transmission, software and information technology services, leasing and business service industry maintained rapid growth during the period.
“However, the consumption demands continued to go up and from January to July, the total retail sales of consumer goods expanded to 9.3 per cent year-on-year to reach 21.07 trillion yuan, with online retail sales reaching 4,786.3 billion yuan, up by 29.3 per cent, while consumer spending on tourism, health, education and cultural consumption also grew significantly.”
