China's industrial growth should maintain its momentum in the latter part of this year, an official said yesterday, apparently seeking to allay fears that the world's second-biggest economy was heading for a hard landing.
But Industry and Information Technology Ministry spokesman Zhu Hongren also said uncertainties would remain, reflecting a challenging domestic and international environment.
'[We] can say that the growth of China's industrial production will maintain its momentum in the second half of this year,' Zhu told a news conference on the country's first-half industrial performance.
His upbeat report comes just a week after data suggesting that the world's fastest-growing major economy performed better than expected in the second quarter, defying forecasts that Beijing's anti-inflationary policies would cause a hard landing.
Zhu said industrial output this year was likely to grow 13 to 15 per cent if the first-half trend continued. Industrial production grew 14.3 per cent in the first half of the year. Industrial output unexpectedly picked up to rise 15.1 per cent year on year last month, up from 13.3 per cent in May.
Zhu said the economy maintained steady and fast growth, but some industries and enterprises had experienced difficulties. He said small businesses were facing greater difficulties amid a slow global economic recovery, rising commodity prices, surging labour costs and limited access to credit.