Curbs Appear to Ease Pace of China Growth
BEIJING -- The headlong expansion of China's economy appeared to ease slightly in the most recent quarter as government measures to cool down growth started to take effect.
China's gross domestic product for the first nine months of 2006 was 10.7% higher than in the same period last year, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday. The agency didn't immediately provide a breakdown of quarterly growth rates, but the figure indicates that the economy slowed somewhat in the July-September quarter after expanding 10.9% in the first half.
Officials expressed satisfaction with the results but warned that problems are still present.
China's economy, now the fourth-largest in the world, has been barreling along this year at its fastest pace in a decade as its exports surge and companies and government agencies rush to build new factories and buildings to cash in on the boom.
The speed with which new investments are being made has raised concerns that many of the projects could turn out to be unneeded in the future. Too much excess capacity could eventually drive down corporate profits, cause inventories of unsold goods to pile up, and lead to layoffs and bankruptcies that would strain the financial system.
Such worries have helped drive many of the measures to clamp down on investment and bank credit already taken this year. This year, China's central bank has raised lending rates twice, by a total of 0.54 percentage point, and taken other measures to pull money out of the banking system so that it can't be lent to companies.
Still, authorities have been cautious in their adjustment of policy, wary of completely derailing the expansion. The government still needs fast economic growth to achieve its goals of increasing employment, raising incomes and reducing poverty in rural areas.
中国政府的宏观调控效果显现
中国高歌猛进的经济发展势头似乎在第三季度有所放缓，因为政府调控经济的效果开始逐步显现。
国家统计局(National Bureau of Statistics)周四表示，中国1-9月国内生产总值(GDP)较上年同期增长10.7%。这三个季度单独的经济增长数据尚未公布，不过从10.7%的增长数字可以看出，在上半年实现高达10.9%的增速后中国经济在7至9月份的发展势头有所放缓。
中国官员对这个结果表示满意，不过警告说问题依然存在。
中国的经济规模目前居全球第四。随着中国出口行业迅猛发展以及意图从经济繁荣中受益的企业及政府机构大兴土木，今年以来中国经济的增长速度达到了10年来的最高水平。
投资的高速增长让人们担心，许多项目或许根本是在浪费资源。生产能力过剩可能最终导致企业利润下降、未售出商品的库存增加、工人下岗和工厂倒闭，而这将为金融系统带来沉重负担。
这种担心促使政府出台了许多政策，比如控制投资增长和银行信贷。中国央行今年两次提高贷款利率，幅度达0.54个百分点，并采取了其他措施从银行系统撤出资金，从而抑制企业信贷。
不过中国政府调整政策时仍然十分谨慎，以防止将经济推向另一个极端。政府仍然需要依靠经济的快速增长来实现降低失业率、提高收入、减少农村地区贫困人口的目标。
Andrew Batson
