China's economy is growing at maximum capacity and risks overheating if Beijing fails to adopt a series of measures to cool it down, a government economist said in remarks published on Wednesday.
China's economy has registered double-digit growth for four years in a row and expanded by an annual 11.1 per cent in the first three months of this year as a result of buoyant investment and exports. Economists have speculated that the economy may have grown by at least 11 per cent between April and June compared with the previous year, despite a median prediction of a 10.8 per cent annual rise forecast by economists and analysts who were surveyed recently by Reuters.
China is set to release gross domestic product (GDP) figures for the second quarter on Thursday.
"Historical experience shows that China's current GDP growth rate has hit or slightly surpassed the upper limit of its appropriate growth range," said Liu Shucheng, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank.
"Considering the constraints of energy consumption and environmental protection, potential economic growth could not be any higher," Liu was quoted by the official China Securities Journal as saying.
The government needed to introduce a series of moderate measures to stave off any big shocks to the economy, he said.
To keep the economy in check, Beijing has increased interest rates four times since last April and raised the amount that lenders must park in reserve with the central bank, rather than lend out, on eight occasions in 13 months.
Other government agencies have also taken various administrative measures to curb wasteful investment and increase the cost to business of polluting.
Analysts expect Beijing to take further tightening steps as soon as this week amid talk that inflation may have exceeded four percent in June.
Fuelling those rumours, the China Securities Journal, in a separate report, cited the agriculture ministry as saying that wholesale prices for pork surged an annual 74.6 per cent in June. Hefty price rises for food products, especially pork and grain, drove China's consumer price inflation to a 27-month high of 3.4 per cent in May.
http://www.financialexpress.com/old/latest_full_story.php?content_id=170407
China's economy has registered double-digit growth for four years in a row and expanded by an annual 11.1 per cent in the first three months of this year as a result of buoyant investment and exports. Economists have speculated that the economy may have grown by at least 11 per cent between April and June compared with the previous year, despite a median prediction of a 10.8 per cent annual rise forecast by economists and analysts who were surveyed recently by Reuters.
China is set to release gross domestic product (GDP) figures for the second quarter on Thursday.
"Historical experience shows that China's current GDP growth rate has hit or slightly surpassed the upper limit of its appropriate growth range," said Liu Shucheng, an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think-tank.
"Considering the constraints of energy consumption and environmental protection, potential economic growth could not be any higher," Liu was quoted by the official China Securities Journal as saying.
The government needed to introduce a series of moderate measures to stave off any big shocks to the economy, he said.
To keep the economy in check, Beijing has increased interest rates four times since last April and raised the amount that lenders must park in reserve with the central bank, rather than lend out, on eight occasions in 13 months.
Other government agencies have also taken various administrative measures to curb wasteful investment and increase the cost to business of polluting.
Analysts expect Beijing to take further tightening steps as soon as this week amid talk that inflation may have exceeded four percent in June.
Fuelling those rumours, the China Securities Journal, in a separate report, cited the agriculture ministry as saying that wholesale prices for pork surged an annual 74.6 per cent in June. Hefty price rises for food products, especially pork and grain, drove China's consumer price inflation to a 27-month high of 3.4 per cent in May.
http://www.financialexpress.com/old/latest_full_story.php?content_id=170407