China's rail freight up 9.8% in December

BEIJING - China's national rail freight volume, an indicator of economic activity, continued to grow in December thanks to a stabilizing economy and improving commodity markets, official data showed on Friday.

Rail freight volume for December rose 9.8 percent year-on-year to 315.79 million metric tons, compared with a 13.9-percent rise in November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Last year, rail freight volume declined 0.8 percent year-on-year to 3.33 billion tons, compared with a 1.8-percent drop in the first 11 months of 2016.

China's economy grew 6.7 percent year-on-year in 2016, a slowdown from the 6.9-percent growth registered in 2015, but in line with the official target range of 6.5 to 7 percent, NBS data showed Friday.

For the fourth quarter, China's economy grew 6.8 percent, slightly beating market forecasts and suggesting growth was stabilizing on a quarterly basis.

The figure represents a medium-high level of growth and China's economy continued to run within a reasonable range, with its structure optimized and development model transformed, NBS chief Ning Jizhe said at a press conference.