First quarter data an encouraging sign

Workers at the production line of Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Co Ltd in Hefei, capital of Anhui province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Editor's note: China's 6.7 percent GDP growth rate in the first quarter of this year may be the lowest since 2009, but it also suggests the second-largest economy is firmly moving toward sustainable growth. Following are some media outlets' interpretations of the first-quarter data:

Xinhuanet.com:

Despite being slightly lower than the growth rate of the fourth quarter of last year, the 6.7 percent GDP growth is still within the 6.5 to 6.7 percent growth range set by the central government for 2016. Perhaps because of the emerging positive signals, the International Monetary Fund recently raised its forecast for China's growth in the next two years by 0.2 percentage points, compared with its lowered growth forecast for many other economies.

More and more signs indicate China's economic recovery has gained pace. In fact, China's industrial production, fixed-asset investment and consumption have seen a steady rise.

Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, says that judging from the positive changes of these key indicators, we can safely conclude that a good start has been made for China's economic growth for the whole of 2016. Other analysts, too, believe China's economy will stop sliding and, instead, begin to stabilize as more signs point to domestic enterprises facing a better future.

But Zhao Xijun, deputy director of the School of Finance, Renmin University of China, says more time is needed to make an accurate judgment about the future trend of China's economy, because non-governmental investment is not so good despite the accelerated growth in investment. So, Chinese policymakers should find ways to increase such investments.

Although the Producer Price Index stayed generally above 50 percent, small and medium-sized enterprises still face a hard time, which means the government has to make greater efforts to activate their business activities. Nevertheless, China should focus not only on the rate of its economic growth but also the quality of growth.