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02:24

China records second-lowest economic growth figure in almost 50 years after Covid-ravaged 2022

China records second-lowest economic growth figure in almost 50 years after Covid-ravaged 2022

China GDP: economy grew by 2.9 per cent in fourth quarter, 3 per cent in 2022 second-lowest since 1976

  • China’s economy grew by 2.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared with a year earlier, down from the 3.9 per cent growth seen in the third quarter
  • This brought the economic growth rate for 2022 to 3 per cent, below the ‘around 5.5 per cent’ target which had long been seen as unattainable due to the coronavirus
China GDP

China’s economy grew by 2.9 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, bringing the full-year growth rate to 3 per cent in 2022, data released on Tuesday showed.

The fourth quarter growth was down from 3.9 per cent growth in the third quarter, but above expectations from Chinese data provider Wind, which had predicted 2.1 per cent growth in the fourth quarter of last year.
China had set an economic growth target of “around 5.5 per cent” for last year, but this had long been seen as unattainable due to the impact of the coronavirus.

For the full year, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) stood at 121 trillion yuan (US$18 trillion) from 114.37 trillion yuan in 2021.

The annual growth figure was above expectations from Wind, which had predicted 2.9 per cent growth in 2022.

But China’s full-year growth figure was only slightly better than the 2.2 per cent growth seen in 2020, which was the lowest since 1976.

“China’s GDP report came in much better than expected, with fourth quarter GDP gaining 2.9 per cent year on year, much better than market consensus at 1.6 per cent. For the whole year, the economy expanded by 3 per cent, largely in line with our expectations,” said Zhou Hao, senior analyst at Guotai Junan Securities.

In other figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Tuesday, retail sales fell by 1.8 per cent last month compared with a year earlier, up from a fall of 5.9 per cent in November. Overall in 2022, retail sales fell by 0.2 per cent.

Industrial production, a gauge of activity in the manufacturing, mining and utilities sectors, grew by 1.3 per cent in December.

The urban surveyed jobless rate, meanwhile, stood at 5.5 per cent in December, down from 5.7 per cent in November.

The jobless rate for the 16-24 age group also remained at an elevated level of 16.7 per cent in December, down from 17.1 per cent in November.

According to official figures, China also created 12.06 million jobs last year.

In general, this is a positive GDP report, and lays a solid ground for the economy to recover in the coming year
Zhou Hao

Fixed-asset investment – a gauge of expenditure on items including infrastructure, property, machinery and equipment – grew by 5.1 per cent last year.

“For the last month of 2022, the activity data were all higher than expected. In particular, the retail sales only contracted by 1.8 per cent year on year, versus market consensus at minus 9 per cent. More encouragingly, the surveyed jobless rate declined to 5.5 per cent by the end of 2022, from 5.7 per cent in the prior month,” added Zhou.

“In general, this is a positive GDP report, and lays a solid ground for the economy to recover in the coming year. We believe both consumption and investment will see further improvement in the next few quarters, as the reopening has been gaining momentum and the government will add more impetus on infrastructure investment.

“We see the government will set the growth target at around 5 per cent in the National People’s Congress in March, which looks pretty attainable for now.”

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