China May Sustain 9% Growth as Investment Shifts Inland

China may maintain growth of about 9 percent this year, avoiding a “hard landing,” as spending on low-cost homes and developing inland provinces counters the impact of Europe’s debt crisis and monetary tightening.

Investment by local governments and private businesses helped drive a 9.5 percent gain in second-quarter gross domestic product from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said in Beijing yesterday. That was faster than estimated as growth in industrial output and retail sales accelerated and copper and aluminum production reached records.