China second-quarter GDP growth may dip below 7 percent - government adviser

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's annual economic growth could fall below 7 percent in the second quarter if weak activity persists in June, an influential government adviser was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

China trade still faces uncertainties in 2013 BEIJING — China’s export growth rebounded surprisingly sharply to a seven-month high in December, a strong finish to the year after seven straight quarters of slowdown, but subdued global demand means that the spike may not herald an enduring recovery. Uncertain trade prospects contrast with data that showed resilient local loan demand, further evidence that the world’s second-largest economy rebounded towards 8% annual growth in the last quarter of 2012 on firming domestic demand.

WASHINGTON — U.S. factory activity slowed in March as new orders weakened, but a rebound in construction spending in February was another sign of faster economic growth in the first quarter. The Institute for Supply Management said on Monday its index of national factory activity fell to 51.3 last month from 54.2 in February. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's annual economic growth could drop below 7 percent in the second quarter, an influential government adviser said in published remarks on Wednesday, the most pessimistic forecast of any government or private-sector economist. Sub-7 percent growth would reflect the pace of the economy during the global financial crisis. China reported economic growth of just 6.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009. ...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's annual economic growth could drop below 7 percent in the second quarter, an influential government adviser said in published remarks on Wednesday, the most pessimistic forecast of any government or private-sector economist.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's annual economic growth could slow to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, largely due to curbs on the property sector and headwinds from external demand, the State Information Center, a government think-tank, said in a report published on Friday. If the GDP forecast is accurate, growth in the second three months of 2012 would be the slowest since the first quarter of 2009, when the global economy was in the grip of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The forecast is in line with the government's official 2012 growth target of 7. ...

Right on the heels of the US visit of Xi Jinping, Chinese Vice President (and likely to replace President Hu Jintao as secretary-general of the Chinese Communist Party), comes news that one of the main indicators of supposed Chinese trade malfeasance - it's global trade surplus - has all but disappeared: