Banks raise forecasts for China growth above official targets
PROSPECTS for Chinese growth this year appear to be firming, as banks raise their growth forecasts and the government commits to reforms.
In contrast to some other emerging markets, institutions are becoming more optimistic about China’s economic prospects for the rest of the year.
Predictions of economic growth in 2013 have been hiked to 7.6 per cent by UBS and Nomura, above the government’s 7.5 per cent target. Deutsche Bank has raised its forecast for the second time in a month, to 7.9 per cent growth in the third quarter and eight per cent in the fourth. However, economists cannot agree on next year’s forecasts: while Nomura’s Zhiwei Zhang expects growth to slow to 6.9 per cent in 2014, Jun Ma of Deutsche suggests that the economy will strengthen, expanding by 8.6 per cent.