From Bloomberg News (link)
China, the world’s fastest- growing major economy, showed no sign of slowing in the first quarter as investment in factories and real estate surged, a government report may show tomorrow.
Gross domestic product in China, which overtook the U.K. to become the world’s fourth-largest economy last year, rose 10.2 percent in first quarter President Hu Jintao said on April 16. The government will officially release first- quarter economic indicators tomorrow in Beijing.
China’s foreign-exchange controls and relaxed curbs on lending have led to an abundance of cheap credit for real estate and manufacturing projects. The nation’s increasing dependence on investment and exports for growth makes government efforts to encourage consumption more urgent, economists said.
Also see Financial Times’ reporter Andrew Yeh writes “China’s Q1 fixed-asset investment up sharply” (link)
China’s fixed assets investment grew 27.7 per cent year-on-year, an official at China’s National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s chief economic planning body, said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.