Chinese GDP lower than expected

Since the fourth quarter of 2011 the Chinese GDP has been declining from 8.9 % to 8.1 % in the first quarter of 2012. Rightly, this is still above the targeted government figure of 7.5 %.

Growth factors were consumption with a share of 76 % of GDP’s growth in 2011 this figure was 51.6 % thus it seems to work what the government decided that internal consumption must a sort of compensate the lesser demand for China’s manufactured goods. On the other hand the GDP growth contribution from investment (infrastructure, real estate, large scale projects) fell from 54.2 % to 33.4 %. In March the consumer price index was up 3.6 % (3.2 % in February) – in line with the rate of inflation.

On the other hand there are also signs of a rebounding of the Chinese economy because bank’s new lending in March was up to CNY 1.01 trillion (around USD 160 billion) from CNY 710 billion in February and fiscal deposits fell sharply in March offering to draw the conclusion that the government is quickly using the means for public projects also to make up for the lower spending by private real estate developers.