CRI听力:Experts: More Stimulation Needed for Steady Growth

Official data from the NBS show that China's property development climate index dropped 0.61 points from March to about 95 points in April.

But Pan Jiancheng, deputy director-general of the China Economic Monitoring Analysis Center at the NBS, says the total amount invested in the property sector is still huge.

"The decelerated growth-rate in property investment is partially due to the fluctuation in the property market. Another reason is that the base figure of last year, which is used to make comparison, is high. If you look at the rate by average figure, the investment in the real estate sector is still high. The growth rate is also steady."

In April alone, the country's industrial added value rose 8.7 percent from a year earlier, but the growth rate was 0.1 percentage points lower than in March.

Niu Li, an economist at the State Information Center, says that in general, the downturn pressure in China's economy is obvious.

"From the figures we can see that all the growth rates in investment, consumption and industrial sectors are much lower than expectations. First of all, the year-on-year industrial growth rate is still lingering below 9 percent. This is very low and reveals that the manufacturing industry is still facing severe overcapacity. The major driver in our economic growth, which is fixed asset investment, is cooling down. Plus, the nominal consumption growth rate is much slower than our expectations. This shows that the performance of consumption is not very good."

Wang Jun, deputy director of the Consulting Research Department at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, says policy adjustment is needed to stabilize the economy.

"Under the condition of not changing the basic policy environment, some minor policy adjustment is necessary, either in terms of financial or currency policy. For instance, in the second half of this year, I think lowering the benchmark interest rate on a large scale is also an option."

Wang Jun adds that some precautions are necessary to avoid big fluctuations in the property market.

Home prices in some 70 major Chinese cities grew at a slower pace in March.

On Tuesday, Chian's central bank issued a statement, urging commercial banks to improve their housing finance services and give priority to loans for first time homebuyers.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.