China Signals Robust Growth as Factory Gauge Hits Five-Year High

China’s official factory gauge rose to a five-year high, signaling that efforts to clean up the financial sector and the environment aren’t damping economic growth yet.

The world’s second-largest economy has shown signs of cooling after posting faster-than-expected expansion of 6.9 percent in both of the first two quarters of the year. The impact of a government drive to cut excess capacity in sectors such as steel and shut polluting industries is being felt in the second half, and may color discussion of economic policy at the Communist Party Congress from Oct. 18.