Indicators signal stabilization after sluggish H1

Editor's Note: Cautiously optimistic, that can be the description of the economists' general feedback on the latest data about China's economic performance, at least according to the views that China Daily has collected here.

Many fears that investors had in earlier weeks are gone, particularly after the industry's stronger growth from June. Apparently, the mini-stimulus program designed by Premier Li Keqiang has been working. For the remainder of the year, the stabilization of the industrial sector may be followed by more investment in fixed assets, such as the much talked-about Central and West China high-speed rail system. And more investment may be followed by more consumer spending.

At the same time, the economists' remaining concerns stand out more clearly than ever - about how China will free itself from the entanglement of an opaque financial system, a legacy from the lack of financial and fiscal reform in the previous decade, and the mounting debt that local governments have collected. This is exactly where China's next reform effort will have to focus.