China's economy registered a double-digit growth rate in the first half of the year, even as the market cooled a bit in the second quarter in line with market expectations, official data showed Thursday.
While analysts excluded the possibility of a double-dip, some suggested that China should prepare itself for growth figures that aren't as remarkable as they've been in the past three decades, which would actually be more in line with a sustained development.
The economy expanded at a 10.3 percent rate, year-on-year, from April to June, slower than both the 11.9 percent growth in the first quarter and the 10.7 percent growth in the fourth quarter of last year, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) spokesman Sheng Laiyun said at a press conference Thursday.
The decline in gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been echoed by other indica-tors, with industrial production growth falling to 13.7 percent in June from 16.5 percent in May, sharper than expected, and retail sales expanding at 18.3 percent last month, slowing from May's 18.7 percent.
But Sheng said the slowdown is likely to help accelerate the transformation of the economic model and avoid overheating.
