November 24, China’s industrial output growth may ease moderately in 2012 due to faltering momentum and inflation pressures, according to a government official.

"The industrial production growth rate will moderate, but the sector will still run at a steady and relatively fast pace," Huang Libin, deputy chief of an inspection and coordination official under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said on Thursday at a press conference.

Huang said demand, a main force of economic growth, has weakened. In the first 3 quarters, the country’s social retail sales after deducting inflation factors only increased 11.3% on a yearly basis, according to data compiled by the National Bureaus of Statistics (NBS).

Property and auto sales were also curbed due to the central government’s tightening measures. Car production and sales added 3% and 3.3%, respectively, in the January-September period.

The nation’s real economies are also facing an array of challenges, such as a liquidity squeeze, climbing costs and exchange rate risks, Huang said.

In the first 10 months, the manufacturers’ input price added 10% y-o-y, 3.3 percentage points higher than the growth of the ex-gate price over the same period, the NBS data showed.

Industrial profits fell in some eastern regions, Huang added. In the first 9 months, industrial profits of enterprises above certain scale added 3% in Guangdong and 3% in Shanghai compared with a year earlier.

Source:21cbh.com