An expert in the United States who has studied China’s data and policies for addressing current economic problems refuted the notion that the economy is in trouble.
Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, told China Daily that “consumption in China has been going up and has been going up on a secular line”, a key reason he believes the economy will weather any storms. He also sees room for growth, as China is largely a middle-income economy.
Gupta also projected that the Chinese economy would grow by around 5 percent in the rest of 2023 and 2024 and at least 5 percent for more than the following 10 years.
“It’s on a gradual improvement, and I see no reason why China will not hit the 5 percent target. I think it’s going to go above 5 percent,” he said.
Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in July showed that China’s GDP grew by 6.3 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2023, slightly lower than the market’s expectations, due to a low base in the same period of 2022 and the effects of early stabilization policies.
According to Gupta, people were expecting a rapid rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a bounce in the first quarter but not in the second, so there was some anxiety about what was happening. However, he said, many of the indicators, even the negative ones, are pointing up in the short and medium terms.
He said the core inflation is increasing, and…
