Donald Trump goads China over record low GDP growth rate as US trade war tariffs hit slowing Chinese economy

Gross domestic product growth slowed to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 with tariffs of 25 per cent on US$250 billion of Chinese imports remaining in place

Trump agreed to pause imposing 25 per cent levies on another US$300 billion of Chinese imports after meeting Xi Jinping at the G20 summit

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, at the end of June. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 9:30pm, 15 Jul 2019Updated: 2:59pm, 16 Jul 2019

US President Donald Trump used his first tweets of the day on Monday to goad China about its slowest gross domestic product growth rate on record, while better-than-expected Chinese economic data for June was met with “scepticism” and “caution” by analysts, rather than as a sign of a turnaround in the economy.

China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slid to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2019, the lowest reading since records began being kept in March 1992, and below the levels reported during the global financial crisis, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirmed on Monday. The figure, though, fell within the range of Beijing’s target growth rate for the year of 6.0 to 6.5 per cent, and was generally expected.

Monthly economic data for June was better than anticipated with industrial production improving by 6.3 per cent from a year earlier, despite the trade war with the United States. Retail sales growth also surged by 9.8 per cent in June, the highest since March 2018.

But that did not stop Trump taking to his social media account before 7am in Washington, with US tariffs of 25 per cent on US$250 billion of Chinese imports remaining despite the truce agreed between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, at the end of June.

“China’s second quarter growth is the slowest it has been in more than 27 years. The United States tariffs are having a major effect on companies wanting to leave China for non-tariffed countries. Thousands of companies are leaving,” he said.

“This is why China wants to make a deal with the US, and wishes it had not broken the original deal in the first place. In the meantime, we are receiving billions of dollars in tariffs from China, with possibly much more to come. These tariffs are paid for by China devaluing and pumping, not by the US taxpayer!”

China has insisted that all tariffs on Chinese imports added by the US during the trade war must be scrapped as part of any deal to end the year-long conflict, with the truce only seeing the 25 per cent levies on an additional US$300 billion of Chinese imports halted. China’s demand would require the Trump administration to give up its position that some levies remain in place even after an agreement is reached.