MNI POLICY: China's Q3 Growth To Be Faster Than Q2: Official

China's growth in Q3 will be significantly faster than Q2 as increased demand, accelerated investment and recovering consumption combine to drive the economy forward, said Fu Linghui, spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics at a briefing on Tuesday.

Profits of industrial enterprises are also continuing to improve while service company losses are narrowing which is a further sign of a stable economic recovery, said Fu, adding that measures to help ailing companies such as increased lending from banks will provide an additional fillip.

CONSUMPTION

Consumption would continue to recover, said Fu, pointing to stable employment, relaxed social distancing rules and consumers' increased willingness to go out.

Fu said that durable good sales are rising as consumers look to upgrade. August saw double digit growth in cosmetic products, communication equipment, jewellery and cars which helped overall consumption turn positive for the first time this year, growing 0.5% y/y, reversing the 1.1% fall in July.

Offline and service spending is gradually recovering, and the fall in hospitality revenues has slowed, said Fu. In the second half of August box office revenues were close to 90% of their levels in same period last year, he added.

Though employment improved from July with the unemployment rate edging down 0.1 percentage point to 5.6%, college graduates still face "relatively big" pressure in finding a job, said Fu. The unemployment rate of 20 to 24 years old with college degree was 5.4 pp higher than the same period last year, Fu added.