CHINA’S GDP RISES 4.9% IN 3RD QUARTER

China’s growth picks up from 3.2 per cent in the second quarter and a contraction of 6.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020. Industrial production and retail sales grew by 6.9 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively from a year earlier as investment turned positive for the first time this year, Orange Wang reported for the South China Morning Post. 

The world’s second-largest economy has recovered strongly after shrinking by 6.8 per cent in the first three months of the year – the first official contraction since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 – due to the lockdown efforts aimed at stemming the tide of the coronavirus pandemic, the Financial Times also reported. 

The recovery in the world’s second-largest economy, which has been stoked by a state-backed industrial boom, now shows signs of extending to consumption at a time when global growth remains under severe pressure. The World Bank (WB) predicted China’s GDP would grow by 5.2 per cent in the third quarter. 

China is likely to be the sole major economy in the world to register positive growth this year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted. Retail sales, which lagged behind the wider recovery, also recorded their best performance this year, beating expectations to rise 3.3 per cent last month. In August, retail sales added 0.5 per cent after seven straight months of decline. Chaoping Zhu, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, said “domestic economic activities are expected to further normalize in the upcoming quarters.”