CHINESE ECONOMY BOOSTS CONfiDENCE in global economic recovery
Beijing: Newly released data indicated that the Chinese economy is recovering with stronger-than-expected momentum, kicking off the year with a good start and boosting confidence in a tepid global economic recovery.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.5 percent year on year in the first quarter, beating the consensus forecast and marking the highest growth in a year.
China’s robust rebound -- according to economists and observers -- is crucial to a sluggish global economic recovery amid still-elevated inflation and higher interest rates, as roughly 90 percent of advanced economies are projected to see a decline in their growth rate this year.
Faster-than-expected Growth
The 4.5-percent growth in the first quarter, much faster than the 2.9-percent increase in the fourth quarter of last year, came as the country secured a smooth transition in its COVID-19 prevention and control measures.
“Efforts to propel China out of its pandemic-induced lethargy are paying off, as the lifting of lockdown restrictions and big stimulus packages propel growth higher than expected,” said Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, a British financial service company.
“As consumer confidence has grown and production has got back on track, retail sales have jumped to a two-year high and industrial output has picked up a pace not seen for five months,” Streeter said, noting that the first quarter’s growth beats expectations of a 4-percent uplift.
Retail sales of consumer goods, for example, went up 5.8 percent year on year in the first quarter, reversing a decline of 2.7 percent in the last quarter of 2022, according to Tuesday’s data. The value-added industrial output increased by 3 percent year on year in the first three months, with a 3.9-percent accelerated expansion in March.
The faster-than-expected growth in the first quarter is just “warming up,” Ljubo Jurcic, a prominent Croatian economist and former economy minister, told Xinhua in a recent interview. “This is a good signal of even higher growth in the future.”