Doomsday prophets misread Chinese economy

BEIJING - Recent official data showed that the Chinese economy grew 7.7 percent last year, relatively slower compared with the two-digit rates that the country has recorded for almost 30 years.

The slow-down has again aroused concerns and market jitters, with some skeptics claiming that China's economic boom is over and a hard landing is inevitable.

The doomsters, however, missed the whole picture of the Chinese economy and over-estimated the risks while focusing their attention on digits.

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For one thing, China's current growth rate, though slower than that in the previous years, still leads other economies.

For another, the slow-down is an expected result of the Chinese government's new strategy to seek quality-oriented and environment-friendly growth.

Official data shows that consumption has caught up with investment to become an equally important driving force of China's economic growth, a sign of initial success of China's restructuring efforts.

Boosting domestic consumption has been China's long-term goal to improve economic sustainability. The government has taken steps such as increasing public spending on health care and pension to strengthen the people's ability of purchase.

Last but not the least, income gap between rural and urban areas has been narrowing, an enticing result of the massive push for urbanization. Tens of millions of Chinese farmers, the largest but long laggard consumer group in the country, are becoming able and ready shoppers, which will unleash massive consuming power for both China and the whole world.

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