China economy grows faster than expected in first quarter on strong industrial production
- China’s economy grew 6.4 per cent in first quarter of 2019, beating analysts expectations, but matching lowest recorded quarterly growth
- Fixed asset investment grew by 6.3 per cent, retail sales were up to 8.7 per cent and industrial production grew by 8.5 per cent, showing improvement in the economy
China’s economy grew 6.4 per cent in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, the joint-slowest growth rate since quarterly growth records began to be published 27 years ago, according to official figures released on Wednesday, but beating analysts’ expectations.
This beat the median forecast of a Bloomberg survey of economists, which predicted gross domestic product (GDP) growth would slow to 6.3 per cent for the quarter.
However, it falls within the government’s growth target range of between 6.0 and 6.5 per cent for this year. Last year the economy grew at 6.6 per cent.
GDP growth matches the fourth quarter growth figure of 6.4 per cent, which matched the lowest growth rate since the Chinese government began publishing quarterly growth rates at the beginning of 1992.
The Chinese economy is battling a number of serious headwinds, including a long-running trade war with the United States, weak consumption at home and slower export demand abroad, as well as debt problems in both the public and private sectors.