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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (2862)	3/17/2004 11:43:10 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6370

China's fixed asset investment soars 53% By Mure Dickie in Beijing Published: March 17 2004 7:06 \| Last Updated: March 17 2004 12:18 China said Wednesday urban fixed-asset investment soared 53 per cent in January and February compared with the first two months of last year, a growth rate that would fuel concerns over possible overheating in parts of the economy. Economists cautioned the implications of the fixed-asset investment data were difficult to judge because of changes to the way they were calculated by the National Statistics Bureau. However, the rate of growth will provide powerful ammunition to those senior officials who argue growth in sectors such as steel, automotive manufacturing and real estate must be reined in. “This will be seen as evidence for the ‘over-heating camp,'” said Tim Condon, economist at ING in Hong Kong. “What we can say with some confidence is that anything growing at 50 per cent is unsustainable.” The statistics bureau said investment in ferrous metal mining and processing climbed 176 per cent year-on-year, while investment in textile operations was up 144 per cent and chemicals up 153 per cent. Investment by state-owned firms grew 55 per cent. Wen Jiabao, prime minister, pointed at imbalances such as over-investment, inflation and shortages of energy when he warned this week the economy was at a “critical juncture”. However, many local officials and executives wave aside fears of over-heating by claiming projects in their areas or by their enterprises are entirely commercially justified. The central bank so far has dismissed calls for higher interest news.ft.com