CRI听力:China's Economy Grows 7 Pct in Q2, Slightly Better than Expected

China's economy has posted a 7-percent growth year on year in the second quarter of 2015.

National Bureau of Statistics data shows second-quarter GDP grew 1.7 percent over the previous quarter.

Slowing growth in trade, investment and domestic demand has been compounded by a cooling property sector and most recently a stock market turbulence.

Sheng Laiyun, statistics bureau spokesperson, analyzes the current situation at a news conference in Beijing.

"The domestic and the external economic environment remained fairly complex in the first half of the year. As for the global situation, the global economic recovery was comprehensively lower than the expectation. At present, it's showing a sign of slow recovery with obvious polarization."

Chinese stock markets did not celebrate the news, however, with benchmark indexes down nearly 3 percent in morning trade on Wednesday.

The government is still trying to stabilize its exchanges, which lost as much as 30 percent in a few short weeks of panicked selling.

Sheng says a stable stock market was vital for China's economy and forceful measures taken recently to contain the meltdown were showing results.

"The Chinese government is capable and has confidence to prevent regional and systematic risks from happening, and it is capable and has conditions and the confidence to promote the stable development of the stock markets and domestic economy."

He also predicts further improvements of the economy in the second half of the year as previous policy measures take effect, including several interest rate cuts.

Pan Jiancheng with the National Bureau of Statistics agrees and says China's economy has shown positive growth, which has huge prospect and potential.

"During the first half of the year , China introduced a series of measures to stabilize economic growth, including a large amount of public service investment, which will be implemented gradually during the second half of the year. In addition, a series of monetary policies including reduction of interest rates, deposit reserve ratio and taxes will be better implemented in the second half of the year. So I think the momentum to drive economy growth will be stronger in the second half."

The government has forecast economic growth of around 7 percent for 2015, which would be the weakest rate in 25 years

For more on China's economic situation, our reporter Zhao Yang earlier talked with Tim Condon, Head of Research, Asia, for ING Bank, on China's overall economy.

0701railway