China Delays Release of Third Quarter Economic Growth Rate Following Export Statistics Postponement

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Min-young] China abruptly postponed the scheduled announcement of the third-quarter economic growth rate on the 18th.

According to Bloomberg and other news agencies, the National Bureau of Statistics of China announced on the 17th that it would delay the release of various economic indicators originally planned for this week.

As a result, the announcement of the third-quarter economic growth rate, scheduled for 10 a.m. on the 18th, along with September industrial production, retail sales, and urban fixed-asset investment, were all postponed.

The National Bureau of Statistics only notified that the release of economic indicators would be delayed but did not provide any reasons.

Earlier, the General Administration of Customs of China did not release the September and third-quarter import-export statistics, which had been pre-announced for the 14th, by the end of business hours.

The Customs Administration neither provided notice of the postponement nor disclosed the reasons for the delay.

This move by Chinese authorities occurred around the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It appears to be a decision influenced by concerns that poor third-quarter economic data could negatively affect the atmosphere of the Party Congress, where President Xi Jinping’s third term is expected to be confirmed.

Experts forecast China’s third-quarter economic growth rate at 3.3%, Bloomberg reported. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the 11th revised down China’s economic growth forecasts for this year and next year to 3.2% and 4.4%, respectively, lowering the July projections by 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points.

The World Bank (WB) also projected China’s economic growth rate for this year at 2.8% in its recently published semiannual report, forecasting it to fall below the average of developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region (5.3%) for the first time in over 30 years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.