China’s economic ‘recovery is still shaky’ as Beijing looks to get it back on solid footing in 2024
- While China’s economy grew in 2023 by 5.2 per cent, analysts say that maintaining the same pace in 2024 ‘will prove a lot more challenging’
- Economic concerns continue to stem largely from a property sector slump, waning investor confidence and a weak private sector – big priorities for Beijing
02:31
China GDP: Beijing’s long to-do list to boost its economy in 2024
Beijing is facing a “more challenging” environment in which it must steer China’s economy in 2024, and rising to the challenge requires that leadership digs deeper into its toolbox to ease mounting pressure from debt, deflation and weak confidence, according to analysts.
The assessment came as the states of property, debt and trade remain worrisome despite the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday reporting a higher-than-expected 5.2 per cent economic expansion last year.
“Recovery is still shaky,” the London-based research firm Capital Economics said in a note. “China’s economy lost momentum in the fourth quarter, and we suspect that’s because [policymakers] failed to acknowledge the full extent of the weakness earlier in the year.”
The world’s second-largest economy also grew by 1 per cent in the last three months of 2023 from the previous quarter, the NBS said, after quarter-on-quarter growth had picked up to 1.5 per cent in the third quarter due to Beijing’s stimulus efforts to prevent the economy from sliding off track.
The third-quarter sequential growth was revised by the NBS on Thursday, up from the 1.3 per cent previously reported.