China’s economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter, according to official statistics, after the COVID restrictions will be lifted at the end 2022.
Between January and March, the National Bureau of Statistics of Pakistan (NBS), reported a 4.5% annual growth.
Economists surveyed by Reuters had predicted a rate around 4%.
The growth rate was 2.2% on a quarterly basis compared to 0.6% between October and Decembre last year.
As life began to return to normal, the figures revealed that consumer spending was the main driver of growth. This was especially true in retail and food sales.
The policy of zero-COVID was reversed due to protests at the end last year.
Since then, consumption, infrastructure and service spending has increased. However factory output in China’s manufacturing powerhouse sector has been struggling in the face weak global growth.
According to economists, the strong exports of March could have been due to a backlog of orders.
Chinese policymakers pledged to increase support for the PS14.5trn (roughly US$14.5bn) economy in order to reduce unemployment. However, they have limited options as businesses struggle with debt and global recession concerns.
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Matt Simpson, senior analyst at City Index said: “On the net, this is a good set of numbers out of China for Q1, which keeps it on track to reach its growth target of around 5 percent this year.”
The figures from China’s major stock exchanges received little attention. The prices of commodities and oil, which had risen in recent months due to expectations that Chinese demand would increase, also remained unchanged.
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