China’s GDP grew 6.7% year-on-year in the first three quarters of 2016 to a total of 52.9971 trillion yuan ($7.863 trillion), a larger than expected increase, with the national economy running smoothly overall, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday.
Agricultural production stabilized, with the gross yield of summer crops registering a slight decrease of 1.2%. Though 2016 will still be the second largest annual crop yield in history, according to the NBS release.
The added-value of industrial enterprises above a designated size (a measure of businesses with an annual income of at least 20 million yuan/$3 million) increased 6% on the previous year. The high-tech industry and equipment manufacturing sector saw their added-value grow faster than the industry-wide 6% increase, registering 10.6% and 9.1% respectively.
Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 23.85 trillion yuan ($3.54 trillion), 10.4% higher than the previous year. Equally noteworthy is that total online retail sales amounted to 3.4651 trillion yuan ($514 billion), up 26.1% year-on-year.
Falls in both exports and imports slowed, and a trade surplus of 2.5852 trillion yuan ($384 billion) was recorded in the first three quarters.
The consumer price index (CPI) grew only moderately for the three quarters, whereas the September producer price index (PPI) was up 0.5% on the previous month, ending a 54-month consecutive decrease, said the NBS release.
The national per capita disposable income for the period was 17,735 yuan ($2,631), up 8.4% nominally on the last year. The income gap between urban and rural residents continued to narrow.
On the whole, measures to moderately expand aggregate demand combined with supply-side structural reform policies to help secure not only stable growth, but also qualitative improvement in the national economy, according to the NBS.
“But we must also be aware that China’s economy is still at a critical stage of transformation, upgrading and converting its driving forces, where domestic and overseas factors interplay, and uncertainties and destabilizing factors abound,” the Bureau said in the release. “So the foundation of the economy’s sustainable development remains yet to be consolidated.”