BEIJING - Doomsayers about China's economy have been wrong in the past, and they are wrong again today, said prominent US economist and author Stephen Roach - who added that the country reported first half GDP growth of 6.9, exceeding the 6.7 percent rise in 2016, as well as beating the consensus of forecasters.

Forecasters find it difficult to resist superimposing cliches about developed economies on China, but they overlook deeper issues shaping the China growth debate, said Roach, who is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs.

The latest bout of pessimism over the Chinese economy has focused on the twin headwinds of deleveraging and a tightening of the property market.