China Posts 8.1% Economic Growth In 2021

China's economy rebounded in 2021 with its best growth in a decade, helped by robust exports, but there are signs that momentum is slowing on weakening consumption and a property downturn, pointing to the need for more policy support, Kevin Yao and Gabriel Crossley reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: An iron. and steel plant in Shanghai, China

Growth in the fourth quarter hit a one-and-a-half-year low, government data showed on Monday shortly after the central bank moved to prop up the economy with a cut to a key lending rate for the first time since early 2020.

The world's second-largest economy is struggling with a rapidly cooling property sector, as well as sporadic small-scale COVID-19 outbreaks that could deal a blow to its factories and supply chains.

Several Chinese cities went on high alert ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday travel season, as the Omicron variant reached more areas including the capital Beijing. The economy grew 8.1% last year - its best expansion since 2011 - and faster than a forecast 8.0%.

The pace was well above a government target of "above 6%", and 2020's revised growth of 2.2%. The economy recorded its weakest growth in 44 years in 2020 but staged a faster recovery than other major economies.

Gross domestic product grew 4.0% in the final quarter, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed, faster than expected but still its weakest pace since the second quarter of 2020. Growth was 4.9% in the third quarter.

"At present, the downward pressure on China's economy is still relatively big, and growth of residents' employment and income is restricted," Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, told a news conference. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, GDP rose 1.6% in October-December, compared with expectations for a 1.1% rise and a revised 0.7% gain in the previous quarter.

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