China says economic growth will slow amid turmoil

China's Cabinet said Sunday the country's economy can weather the effects of the global financial turmoil, bub growth will decline as the expansion of business profits and public revenues slows.

The State Council said in a statement at the end of an executive meeting led by Premier Wen Jiabao that the turmoil and economic instability will have a "gradual" effect on the country.

It said China's economic growh will slow along with corporate profits and public revenues, and as capital markets continue to fluctuate.

"Unfavorable international factors and the serious natural disasters at home have not changed the basic growth situation of our country's economy," said the statement posted on a government Web site. "Our country's economic growth has the ability and vigor to resist risks."

The country was hit by two major natural disasters this year - a freak storm just before February's Lunar New Year that left scores dead and hundreds of thousands stranded during the country's busiest travel period, and a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in May that left nearly 90,000 people dead or missing.

China must "adopt flexible and cautious macroeconomic policies" to maintain stable growth, the statement said.

The council said that in the fourth quarter, the country should focus on developing the rural economy, while striving to control inflation.

The government should also help local small and medium enterprises to grow by encouraging financial institutions to provide more loans to them, the statement said.

China faces difficulties including high energy costs and inflation, but officials say the country has growth potential despite the global uncertainties because of its large labor pool, vast domestic market and the increasing competitiveness of its companies.

Economists have cut China's growth forecasts to as low as 9 percent for the year, down from last year's 11.9 percent. That would be the highest rate for any major country, but the country's leaders want to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses, which could fuel political tensions.
As much as Obama raised, he needed a big fundraising month to justify his decision to bypass the public finance system. Financially, he has been competing not only against McCain, but against the Republican Party, which raised $66 million in September.

But the combined Obama and Democratic Party totals for September give Obama a distinct financial advantage with the election just 16 days away.

The candidates' itineraries underscored McCain's mounting problems in states that traditionally have been safe for Republicans.

Obama spent Saturday in Missouri, a bellwether state that voted for President George W. Bush in 2004. Campaign aides, citing local police, estimated 100,000 people turned out to hear him at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and later 75,000 turned out for a speech at dusk across the state in Kansas City.

Only once since 1904 has the Midwestern state failed to vote for the ultimate presidential election winner.

McCain campaigned in North Carolina and Virginia, a pair of traditionally Republican states he is struggling to hold.

The last Democratic candidate to win North Carolina was Southerner Jimmy Carter in 1976, when the Republicans were reeling from President Richard Nixon's resignation following the Watergate scandal. Virginia has not voted for a Democratic nominee since President Lyndon Johnson's landslide victory in 1964.