Rio Tinto expects Chinese growth to cross 8 percent in 2012

Global miner Rio Tinto said it expected economic growth in China, the world's top consumer of raw materials, to rise above 8 percent this year.

A slowdown in Chinese growth this year has translated into weaker consumption of raw materials such as copper and oil, contributing to a slide in commodities prices.

"We expect Chinese growth to be above 8 percent this year despite lower export demand and monetary tightening," Rio said in a presentation on its website. "Recent fiscal and monetary loosening should lead to a pick-up in growth in H2 2012," Vivek Tulpulé, Rio's chief economist, said in a presentation.

A Chinese finance ministry official said on June 28 the country was confident it could meet its 2012 economic growth target of 7.5 percent.

Rio also was optimistic about the outlook for US demand for commodities, even though first-quarter US economic growth came below expectations.

"Commodity growth may remain resilient as the housing recovery is still in effect," the company said. Rio, the world No. 3 miner, last month reaffirmed that it was a little more confident about the outlook for commodities demand than it was six months previously and said markets were "reasonably robust" for most of its products.

The presentation gave no outlook for global commodities demand for this year but said its belief in the longer-term demand picture was unchanged due to per capita income growth in emerging market countries such as China and India.