China GDP: second quarter plunge creates ‘impossible’ task to hit annual growth target without stimulus

• China’s economy grew by 0.4 per cent in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier, down from the 4.8 per cent growth seen in the first three months of the year
• Zero-Covid policy and a contracting property market coupled with external headwinds threaten Beijing’s ‘around 5.5 per cent’ annual economic growth target