Home>News Center>China
       
 

ADB: China's economy expected to grow 8.5%
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-06 12:58

China's economy will grow at a robust annual rate of 8.5 percent this year and may pick up further steam in 2006-2007 due to strong investment, the Asian Development Bank said in a report issued Wednesday.

The ADB's forecast, revised upward from an earlier prediction of 8 percent growth, is a full percentage point lower than the sizzling 9.5 percent growth seen last year.

But the Manila-based bank said it expects the economy to grow at even faster rates of 8.7 percent in 2006 and 8.9 percent in 2007 due to strong investment in many construction projects still in the pipeline.

The Chinese government has set its growth target for 2005 at between 8 percent and 8.5 percent.

Regulators have been tightening credit and limiting lending for investments in property development and a number of booming industries, hoping to relieve strain on energy supplies and transport and achieve a more sustainable growth level.

The ADB said it expected a modest slowdown in 2005 due to an anticipated decline in growth in investment in construction, factories and other such fixed assets. The government's main index for such spending, fixed asset investment, is forecast to rise 18 percent on-year this year, compared with 25.8 percent growth for 2004.

But the regional lender warned against "a possible return to extraordinarily high growth rates of investment."

"A relaxation of macroeconomic controls could spark a rebound in investment growth and overheating in some subsectors," the bank said.

The report forecast that inflation will remain at a moderate 3.6 percent, thanks to overcapacity in many industries and a leveling off of increases in grain prices.

The government has said it intends to keep price increases within 4 percent this year, and it has ordered local officials to impose prices freezes if inflation appears to be surging beyond that limit.

The ADB said inflation would fall further, to 3.3 percent in 2006 and 3.2 percent in 2007.



 
  Today's Top News     Top China News
 

Japanese textbook distorts history, stirs fury

 

   
 

ADB: China's economy expected to grow 8.5%

 

   
 

400,000 to relocate for water project

 

   
 

Possible US textile safeguards draw criticism

 

   
 

China, Pakistan sign cooperation treaty

 

   
 

Shrine visit angers both sides of Straits

 

   
  HIV/AIDS bigger threat than biological weapons
   
  Olympic gift horse killed in car smash
   
  It's your 'dead' wife calling
   
  New customs office to help boost mutual trade
   
  Official: no TB epidemic on campus
   
  Beijing to have advanced first-aid system
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
China's economy set to grow 8% from 2006 to 2010
   
China's economy to grow 8% annually from 2006 to 2010
   
China's economy expected to grow 8-9 percent in 2005
   
Economy planner: Macro control to continue
   
Gov't adjusts economic growth projections
   
WB: China's economy faces challenges
  News Talk  
  It is time to prepare for Beijing - 2008  
Advertisement