ADB: China's 2017 growth higher than predicted

On 13th December the Asian Development Bank announced that the Chinese economy is expected to expand faster than first predicted for 2017.

This is due to resilient consumption growth over the past year, but is expected to slow again in 2018.

For 2017, growth in the mainland is set to increase 6.8% in 2017, up from a previous predition of 6.7%.

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It is then likely to grow more slowly in 2018 at a pace of 6.4%, ADB told CNBC. This will be the slowest pace since 1990 according to the World Bank.

The wider region of “developing Asia” which includes 45 ADB members such as China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore but excludes Japan, is said to have experiences stronger than expected exports and domestic consumption.

Developing Asia’s growth moved up 0.1% to 6% in 2017 but next year is expected to slow to 5.8%.

In comparison, growth predictions for the US remain consistent at 2.2% for 2017 and 2.4% in 2018.

ADB said that while it is monitoring the situation surrounding North Korea, this has not yet damaged economic growth in the region. It also stated that “expansion in central, east and south-east Asia offsets the dip in south Asia”.

Commodity prices are said to have not risen significantly enough to impact inflation.