BEIJING: China’s economy grew 5.2 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, official data showed on Wednesday (Jan 17), missing analysts’ expectations slightly but still ensuring Beijing met its annual growth target despite a shaky start to the year.
Confounding most analysts’ expectations, the world’s second-largest economy has struggled to mount a strong and sustainable post-COVID-19 pandemic bounce, burdened by a protracted property crisis, weak consumer and business confidence, mounting local government debts, and slower global growth.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast that fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) would expand 5.3 per cent from a year earlier, quickening from the third quarter’s 4.9 per cent pace.
For the full-year 2023, the economy grew 5.2 per cent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed, partly helped by the previous year’s low-base effect which was marked by COVID-19 lockdowns. Analysts had forecast 5.2 per cent growth.
On a quarter-by-quarter basis, GDP grew 1.0 per cent in October-December, in line with expectations for a 1.0 per cent increase and compared with a revised 1.5 per cent gain in the previous quarter.
Beijing set a growth target of around 5 per cent for 2023 and policy insiders expect it to maintain a similar goal for this year.
December activity indicators released along with the GDP data on Wednesday showed factory output growth quickened at the fastest pace since February 2022, but retail sales grew at the slowest pace since September. Investment growth remained tepid.
Sustained weakness in the property sector, once a key driver of the world’s second-biggest economy, continued to drag on the broader economic recovery. China’s December new home prices fell at the fastest pace since February 2015, marking the sixth straight month of declines, NBS data showed on Wednesday.
Unemployment figures suggested the country’s job market worsened slightly, as the nationwide survey-based jobless rate increased to 5.1 per cent in December from November’s 5.0 per cent.