China is set to release its economic growth data Tuesday, and international markets are anxious over the slowest expansion rate of the world's second largest economy since 1990. Meanwhile, analysts claim that despite slow growth in last year's fourth quarter, the country remains one of the strongest economies in the world.
ABC News reported that private sectors projects China's economic growth to be slightly higher than its 6.9 percent in the third quarter last year or it could drop as low as 6.4 percent. This may be small numbers, but it is still one of the strongest economic growth rates in the world, coming in second to India, which is only a tenth of China's size.
The Financial Times wrote that China's peak economic growth reached 14.2 percent back in 2007. Growth has constantly been declining since the ruling Communist Party shift from the traditional investment and trade models to self-sustaining growth through promoting domestic consumption and services.
"The moderation would largely reflect a much smaller contribution from financial services (reflecting the slump in the equity market). However, growth in the rest of the economy should be similar to the third quarter, as weakness in mining, construction and heavy industry are largely countered by stronger public infrastructure spending, consumption and services," said Japanese financial holding company Nomura in a report by CNBC. "Overall, the timelier monthly data are likely to signal that growth is stabilizing (albeit at a low level and likely only temporarily), underpinned by the cumulative policy easing measures and consistent with the stronger-than- expected trade and total social financing data for December."
The International Monetary Fund, along with the private sector expects China's economic growth to have dropped to only 6.8 percent for the entire year of 2015. The ruling party aims to hit a 7 percent growth. China's economic growth is seen to slump down further this year and the following years until it finally rebounds before the end of 2020.
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