Arab Times

China’s GDP expands 5.3 pct year on year in Q1

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BEIJING, April 16, (Xinhua): China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 5.3 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2024, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Tuesday.

The country’s GDP reached 29.63 trillion yuan (about 4.17 trillion U.S. dollars) during this period, the NBS data showed.

On a quarterly basis, the economy increased 1.6 percent in the first three months.

“China’s high-quality developmen­t has made new achievemen­ts in the first quarter. The national economy has sustained recovery momentum and got off to a good start,” Sheng Laiyun, deputy director of the NBS, told a press conference. Sheng mentioned positive factors during the period such as rising production demand, stable employment and prices, and growing market confidence.

“These positive factors driving economic recovery are accumulati­ng and strengthen­ing, laying a good foundation for full-year growth,” said Sheng.

Sheng attributed the upbeat momentum in the first quarter to the implementa­tion of supportive government policies and intensifie­d macro-control efforts.

Also:

BEIJING: China’s retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country’s consumptio­n strength, climbed 4.7 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2024, official data showed Tuesday.

The growth was compared to an increase of 5.5 percent registered during the January-February period, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Retail sales in the country’s urban regions rose 4.6 percent year on year during the period, while that in rural areas expanded 5.2 percent.

Online retail sales jumped 12.4 percent year on year, with online retail sales of physical goods expanding 11.6 percent and accounting for 23.3 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods.

China vowed to expand domestic demand and promote sound economic flows, while promoting steady growth in consumer spending this year.

Service consumptio­n maintained solid expansion in the first quarter, contributi­ng 55.7 percent to the economic growth, deputy director of the NBS, told a press conference.

The number of trips made during the Spring Festival holiday jumped 34.3 percent year on year, exceeding that of the same period in 2019. Tourism consumptio­n during the holiday also surpassed the level seen in the same period in 2019, official data showed.geted its full-year economic growth at around 5 percent for 2024.

Sheng Laiyun,

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