CHINA’S economy grew 4.5% year-on-year in the first quarter, official data showed today, after Beijing scrapped its zero-Covid measures late last year.

The country’s March retail figures, the main indicator of household consumption, were up 10.6% on-year, the biggest bounce since June 2021.

According to figures published by the National Bureau of Statistics, industrial production last month climbed 3.9% year-on-year. 

Today’s figures are the first snapshot since 2019 of a Chinese economy unencumbered by public health restrictions.

The Asian giant’s virus containment policy – an unstinting regime of strict quarantines, mass testing and travel curbs – strongly constrained normal economic activity before it was abruptly ditched in December.

The world’s number two economy is also beset by a series of other crises, from a debt-laden property sector to flagging consumer confidence, global inflation and the threat of recession elsewhere.

China’s economy grew by just three percent in the whole of last year, one of its weakest performances in decades.

It posted a 4.8% expansion in the first quarter of 2022, though growth pulled back to just 2.9% in the final three months of the year. – AFP, April 18, 2023.