BANGKOK — The Chinese government said Monday that the economy grew at a slower-than-expected 4.7% annual rate in the last quarter. However, they pointed out that factory output, income, and investment were all getting better.
There was a lot less growth than the 5.3% annual rate seen in the first quarter of the year.
If you remember, growth slowed down a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Bureau of Statistics said that this year’s progress was “hard won.”
The statement said, “Since the start of this year, the global economy hasn’t been growing quickly, inflation is high, and there have been a lot of problems with geopolitical conflicts, international trade frictions, and other issues. Domestic demand is also low, businesses are under a lot of pressure to make ends meet, and there are many risks and hidden dangers in key areas.”
“Advancing the stable running of the economy comes with a lot of problems and difficulties,” it said.
The world’s second-largest economy isn’t growing as fast as it could because people aren’t buying as much and the government isn’t spending as much.
The economy grew at a rate of 5% in the first half of the year, which was in line with the government’s goal of about 5% growth.
The economy grew by 0.7% over the last three months, which is how many other countries report their growth.
The news came as the leaders of the ruling Communist Party met for a once-every-ten-years meeting to set economic policy. The meeting was meant to focus on self-sufficient growth strategies in a time of trade and technology tensions.
The 205 members of the Communist Party’s Central Committee are meeting for four days. This is the third plenary session of a five-year term that began in 2022. The meeting for this year was supposed to happen last year, but it got pushed back.
The rules that came out of the meetings behind closed doors are likely to be made days after the meetings are over.
Party plenums usually talk about long-term issues, but investors and business owners are waiting for any immediate steps to be taken to stop the long-lasting property market downturn and the general malaise that has slowed China’s recovery since COVID-19.
Recent bright spots suggest that growth has stopped growing.
China’s trade surplus grew even more in June, when the government reported exports that were higher than expected.
From the same time last year to now, exports went up 8.6%, but imports went down 2.3%. The trade deficit grew from $82.6 billion in May to $99 billion now.
The government statistics office said on Monday that in June, factory output went up 5.3%.
It said that from January to May, retail sales, which show how much people want to buy, went up 5.1% and nominal disposable income, which doesn’t take inflation into account, went up 5.4%.
Consumer demand needs to grow in order for growth to continue to be strong. However, this has been hard to do because companies have been laying off workers during and after the pandemic, which has made many Chinese families tighten their budgets.
