Workers check a 1,000-kilovolt ultra-high voltage electricity transmission line in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province on March 15, 2023. Cities in China are starting seasonal power checks to ensure a stable power supply for the summer. Photo: cnsphoto

China's economic indicators for September have shown a significant improvement in certain areas such as electricity use and the operating rate of construction machinery, compared with a year earlier, with growth rates accelerating from August.

The improved figures, coupled with a construction boom of major projects in September and October, offer new signs that China's economic recovery is gaining momentum. 

Experts said that accelerating the implementation of major projects will help drive sustained investment growth and lay the foundation for GDP growth in the fourth quarter.

As a barometer of economic performance, China's electricity use in September rose by 9.9 percent year-on-year, the National Energy Administration said on Monday, with growth up from 3.9 percent in August.

The operating rate of construction machinery was 59.96 percent in September, up 0.54 percentage points from August. In 21 provinces, the operating rate of excavators picked up from the previous month, while 17 provinces recorded an increase in the operating rate of road construction equipment.

These figures indicate that major projects in various regions are accelerating, injecting strong momentum into China's economic performance, experts said. They expect fixed-asset investment growth to speed up in the fourth quarter, further enhancing its contribution to economic growth.

Since the end of September, many provinces and cities have accelerated the construction of new projects as they sprint to the fourth quarter. The total investment in new projects under construction has so far exceeded 2.2 trillion yuan ($300 billion), according to a compilation by the 21st Century Business Herald. 

For example, Southwest China's Sichuan Province announced the launch of 1,874 key projects on September 25, with total investment of 1.08 trillion yuan, while East China's Anhui Province said it would start 1,089 key projects on October 7, with a total investment of 707.4 billion yuan. The projects span multiple sectors such as manufacturing, infrastructure and livelihoods.

In the first eight months, national infrastructure investment rose by 6.4 percent year-on-year, outpacing fixed-asset investment by 3.2 percentage points.

Key infrastructure investments can help stimulate an investment recovery, promote employment and boost consumption and play a crucial role in growth, Zhou Maohua, an economist with China Everbright Bank, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

As new projects kick in, local governments are issuing more special-purpose bonds. In August, such new issues reached 594.58 billion yuan, the highest for any month so far this year. In September, new issues stood at 356.93 billion yuan. 

In the first three quarters of this year, new issues hit 3.45 trillion yuan, accounting for more than 90 percent of the annual quota of 3.8 trillion yuan. 

Zhou said that local governments' efforts to stabilize economic growth and accelerate such bond issues will support the progress of important projects. He expects that the growth of fixed-asset investment will continue to pick up in the fourth quarter, making a larger contribution to GDP growth.

Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, attributed the surging electricity use and infrastructure construction activities to the obvious recovery of China's official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) in September, especially for industrial enterprises. 

China's PMI for September came in at 50.2, the first time in positive territory since April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

"Support policies announced since the second half of 2023 are now taking effect and are showing up in market activity. It can be observed from multiple figures that China's economic recovery will be further accelerated by continuous policy support," said Hu.