The Sunday Mail
CHINA’S economy slowed in November as factory shut downs exacerbated weaker demand, raising pressure on the central bank to add further stimulus.
Bloomberg’s gross domestic product tracker came in at 6,78 percent year-on-year in November, down from 6,91 percent in October and a fourth month below seven percent, according to a preliminary reading.
Factory production rose 7,2 percent from a year earlier, retail sales gained 11,7 percent, and investment in fixed assets expanded 15,8 percent in January through November from a year earlier, official data showed.
The government ordered some factories to close in Beijing and surrounding provinces during the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in early November to curb pollution.
China’s central bank has been seeking to ease monetary conditions including with a cut to benchmark interest rates last month, helping spur a rebound in the broadest measure of new credit.
“The accelerated lending could lend some support to short-term growth,” said Le Xia, chief Asia economist at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA.
“However, banks need to find more funds to support the lending, which could prompt the authorities to cut RRR to provide more liquidity.”
Aggregate financing rose to 1,15 trillion yuan (US$186 billion) in November, the People’s Bank of China’s said in Beijing, compared with 662,7 billion yuan previously reported in October and the 895 billion yuan median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.
New local-currency loans were 852,7 billion yuan, and M2 money supply grew 12,3 percent from a year earlier compared with the median estimate of 12,5 percent.
New yuan loans, which measure new lending minus loans repaid, compared with economists’ median estimate of 655 billion yuan and 548,3 billion yuan reported in October. — Bloomberg.
