China delays release of economic indicators including Q3 GDP

People wearing face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), shop at a morning market in Beijing, China March 30, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File photo

BEIJING  – China will delay the release of economic indicators originally scheduled for publication this week, including the country’s third-quarter gross domestic product due on Tuesday, according to an updated calendar on the statistics bureau’s website.

The data for third-quarter GDP – originally scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) on Tuesday – had been highly anticipated after the world’s second-largest economy grew just 0.4 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier.

China’s GDP was expected to have expanded 3.4 percent in July-September, according to a Reuters poll, as the economy started to feel the impact of a raft of government supportive policies introduced in recent months.

The National Bureau of Statistics was also originally scheduled to release September data for a host of other figures including industrial production, retail sales and the urban jobless rate, alongside the GDP data.

Also delayed with no explanation was data for China’s home prices for September, previously scheduled for publication on Wednesday.

The delays announced on Monday followed an unexplained move by the General Administration of Customs on Friday to skip its previously scheduled release of September’s trade data.

The trade statistics had been expected to show China’s export growth weakened further from August, dragged down by soft global demand, while its imports remained tepid.

The trade data was still not released on Monday and calls to the customs administration seeking comment went unanswered.

The delays came amid a once-in-five-years congress of the ruling Communist Party where President Xi Jinping is widely expected to win a third precedent-breaking leadership term.