BEIJING (Reuters) -China delayed the release of economic indicators scheduled for publication this week, including its third-quarter gross domestic product data due on Tuesday, according to an updated calendar on the statistics bureau’s website.
The highly unusual delay comes amid the week-long congress of the ruling Communist Party, a twice-a-decade event that is an especially sensitive time in China.
The data for third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) – originally scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Tuesday – has been highly anticipated after the world’s second-largest economy grew just 0.4% in the second quarter from a year earlier.
A person answering the telephone in the media office at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said the change was “due to adjustment to work arrangements” but gave no further details.
No date for a rescheduled release has been given.
GDP was expected to have expanded 3.4% 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 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.
He said the delay was unlikely to affect market sentiment as most preliminary economic data pointed to a pick-up in recovery in the third quarter.
September releases for a host of other figures including industrial production, retail sales and the urban jobless rate that are typically issued along with the GDP data had also been delayed, according to the NBS website.
Also delayed was data for China’s home prices for September, which had been scheduled for publication on Wednesday.
The delays followed the unexplained delay in the release of September’s trade data by the General Administration of Customs, which had been due out on Friday.
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 not released on Monday and calls to the customs administration seeking comment went unanswered.
At the conclusion of this week’s congress, President Xi Jinping is widely expected to win a precedent-breaking third leadership term.
At the last party congress, in 2017, third quarter GDP data was released as usual.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo and Ellen Zhang; Editing by Toby Chopra, Jacqueline Wong and Tony Munroe)
