Economy still on the right track

The official Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index, a key measure of factory activity in China, stood at 50.2 in June, unchanged from May. Market consensus is GDP growth will be about 7 percent in the second quarter, unchanged from the first quarter.

Meanwhile, the government has stepped up its efforts to bolster economic growth, especially investment. The central bank cut the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage point in late June and lowered the reserve requirement ratio for targeted banks.

Authorities have also accelerated the approval of infrastructure projects in the hope of boosting the sluggish fixed-asset investment. The National Development and Reform Commission had until July 1 approved infrastructure projects with a combined investment of 884 billion yuan ($142.37 billion) this year, with the urban mass-transit systems accounting for the largest share.

Zhu Guangyao, vice-minister of finance, told China Economic Weekly, a newspaper affiliated with the People's Daily, that China could expand its fiscal deficit in the second half to make the "proactive fiscal policy" more "proactive".

China at the beginning of the year raised its deficit target from 2.1 percent of GDP in 2014 to 2.3 percent, or 1.62 trillion yuan.