According to an updated calendar on the statistics bureau’s website, China postponed the release of economic indicators scheduled for publication this week, including its third-quarter gross domestic product figures due on Tuesday.
The exceedingly rare postponement occurs during the Communist Party‘s annual congress, which lasts a full week and is a particularly sensitive time for China.
The third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures, which were supposed to be announced at 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Tuesday – have been eagerly awaited after the second-largest economy in the world had a meagre 0.4% growth from a year earlier in the second quarter.
There hasn’t been a new release date specified
A National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) media office employee stated that the change was “due to adjustment to work arrangements” but provided no further information. There hasn’t been a new release date specified.
According to a Reuters survey, GDP was projected to have increased by 3.4% in the months of July through September as the economy began to experience the effects of a number of recent government policy initiatives.
Data on China’s home prices for September, which was supposed to be released on Wednesday, was also postponed
“The delayed economic data release is not because of bad economic recovery but the ongoing congress, as authorities want media and the public to concentrate on the key messages delivered by the big event,” said Bruce Pang, chief economist at Jones Lang Lasalle in Hong Kong.
According to him, the majority of early economic data indicated that the recovery would pick up in the third quarter, making the delay unlikely to have an impact on market confidence.
According to the NBS website, September releases for a number of other statistics, such as industrial production, retail sales, and the urban unemployment rate, which are generally released alongside the GDP data, have also been postponed.
Data on China’s home prices for September, which was supposed to be released on Wednesday, was also postponed. The delays came after the General Administration of Customs’ unexplained postponement of its Friday deadline for the publishing of trade data for September.
It is highly anticipated that President Xi Jinping will be elected to a record-breaking third term as party head
The trade numbers were predicted to indicate China’s import growth remained subdued while its export growth dropped further from August, weighed down by sluggish global demand.
On Monday, the trade data was not made public, and requests for comment made to the customs agency remained unanswered. It is highly anticipated that President Xi Jinping will be elected to a record-breaking third term as party head at the completion of this week’s congress. Third-quarter GDP statistics were made public at the most recent party congress in 2017, as usual.