Still huge potential to tap

Despite a slight decline in industrial added value, fixed-asset investment, total retail sales of consumer goods and consumer prices in June, the macroeconomic data for July, which was recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics, indicate that China's economy remains on a solid footing.

It is normal that the growth of the world's second-largest economy should have slowed at a time when it is trying to address such problems as its major structural imbalances, its mismatched supply-demand relationship and its lack of efficient and high-quality supplies. To resolve these long-standing and increasingly outstanding problems is of great significance to the establishment and development of a sustainable, stable and healthy economy.

Despite the slowed growth of investment in traditional manufacturing, investment in high-technology industries and equipment manufacturing has accelerated as a result of the ongoing supply-side structural reform. The NBS data also indicate that the added value of high-tech industries grew by 12.1 percent year-on-year in July and that of equipment manufacturing grew 10.7 percent year-on-year. At the same time, the optimizing of the industrial structure as well as improvements in supply injected new vitality into the country's economic operations.

In terms of demand, the total retail volume of consumer goods declined by 0.6 percentage points from June, but it increased by 10.4 percentage points from a year earlier. Even within the January-July period, consumption, along with investment and exports, played a leading role in contributing to China's economic growth. The energetic demand has helped create a favorable environment for the further advancement of supply-side structural reform.

GDP growth is not the only index to judge a country's economic performance. Its economic growth rate, employment and prices should also be taken into consideration to make a more accurate, judgment. These, along with the economy's greater efficiency, people's improved livelihoods and restored market confidence, demonstrate the resilience of China's economy and the huge potential it still enjoys.