China's second quarter economic growth exceeded expectations, helped by stimulus, suggesting that the government remains on track to achieve its target this year.
Gross domestic product grew 7 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, the same rate of growth as seen in the first quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Wednesday. The rate was faster than the 6.8 percent rise forecast by economists.
The GDP growth for the first half of the year also came in at 7 percent. The government aims to achieve about 7 percent growth for the year.
Quarter-on-quarter, the economy expanded 1.7 percent in three months to June after growing 1.4 percent in the first quarter. The growth rate was forecast to improve to 1.6 percent.
The second quarter's stronger-than-consensus GDP growth partly reflects an unsustainable surge in financial sector activity that will prove short-lived, Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics, said.
Even so, there are plenty of positive signs on broader economic momentum in today's data too, he observed. More broadly, with the drag from the structural slowdown in property and heavy industry now easing, the economist think that growth is on track to slow only gradually over the course of the next few years.
Annual growth of industrial production accelerated to 6.8 percent in June from 6.1 percent in May. This was the fastest growth since the start of the year and above the expected increase of 6 percent.
Similarly, retail sales growth quickened to 10.6 percent in June from 10.1 percent a month ago. It was slightly above the forecast of 10.3 percent. Fixed asset investment for the first half of the year advanced 11.4 percent.
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