China’s export bases stand firm in trade war with the United States … for now
- Economic powerhouses beat the nationwide average with just modest slowdowns
- First wave of US-China trade war yet to show a significant impact, regional figures show
China’s two economic powerhouses, Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, reported only modest slowdowns in economic growth for the first three quarters as they weathered the first wave of a trade war, according to official data released by the two authorities.
Gross domestic product for Guangdong in the Pearl River Delta in China’s southeast grew by 6.9 per cent during the first three quarters of 2018 from a year ago, a rate slightly higher than the nationwide growth rate of 6.7 per cent for the same period, according to official data.
In the same period last year, Guangdong’s growth rate was 7.1 per cent.
In eastern China, in the Yangtze River Delta, Zhejiang province – another export hub – reported economic growth of 7.5 per cent, the provincial government said on Monday. That compares to 7.6 per cent in the same nine-month period last year.
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The relatively sound growth of the two provinces, which jointly accounted for nearly 40 per cent of China’s total exports, is evidence that the first round of the trade war between China and the US has yet to generate a significant impact on the world’s second-biggest economy.