BEIJING (AP) \u2014 China\u2019s economic growth will soften this year due to summer flooding and anti-coronavirus controls, an official said Monday, after consumer sales and other activity weakened in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s economy still is in a \u201crecovery trend\u201d from last year\u2019s pandemic-induced slowdown but is likely to weaken after a relatively strong first half, said Fu Linghui, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s main economic growth trend will be \u2018low after high,\u2019\u201d Fu said at a news conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fu gave no growth forecast. Private sector forecasters say the world\u2019s second-largest economy should easily achieve 8% growth over last year\u2019s depressed level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growth in July retail sales softened to 8.5% over a year earlier, below the consensus forecast of 10.9% and down from the previous month\u2019s 12.1%. Factory output grew 6.4%, below the forecast of 7.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGrowth momentum weakened sharply,\u201d Louis Kuijs of Oxford Economics said in a report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The economy was disrupted by unusually severe summer flooding that hit central China in July, killing more than 300 people in Henan province. More floods hit Hubei province to the south this month, killing at least 21 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, authorities have reimposed some travel and business controls to fight outbreaks of the coronavirus\u2019s more contagious delta variant that began in late July. Some airline flights and train services have been canceled, most access to a city of 1.5 million cut off and mass virus testing ordered in some areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGiven China\u2019s \u2018zero tolerance\u2019 approach to COVID, future outbreaks will continue to pose significant risk to the outlook,\u201d Kuijs said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government reported earlier that economic growth slowed to a still-strong 7.9% over a year earlier in the three months ending in June, down from the previous quarter\u2019s 18.3%. Those figures were amplified by comparison with early 2020, when the economy was shut down to fight the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Output in the second quarter compared with the January-March period, the way other major economies are measured, was up 1.3%, an increase from the previous quarter\u2019s 0.6% over late 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fu, the statistics official, expressed confidence the long-term outlook was still healthy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe economy will still maintain a stable recovery,\u201d Fu said. \u201cThe quality of development will continue to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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