People buy Apple products at Apple’s new flagship store on its opening day following an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sanlitun, Beijing, China on July 17, 2020.
Thomas Peter | Reuters
BEIJING – China reported first-quarter gross domestic product hit one point below expectations as industrial production disappointed, but retail sales exceeded.
GDP soared 18.3% in the first three months of the previous year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. This is slightly below expectations for a 19% increase, according to analysts polled by Reuters.
The increase in growth came in a contraction in the first quarter of last year, when the economy shrank by 6.8% during the peak of the Covid-19 domestic outbreak. China was the first country to treat the disease and the economy returned to growth in the second quarter of last year.
GDP rose 10.3% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2019, the statistics office said.
China also said retail sales rose 34.2% in March, exceeding expectations of 28% growth.
Industrial production rose 14.1% in March, and Reuters ’forecast of 17.2% growth was missing.
The slowest growth in industrial production came despite more workers being laid off during the Spring Festival and not traveling home for what may be a holiday month.
The statistics office warned in a statement in English that the spread of Covid-19 worldwide and the “international landscape is complicated by high uncertainties and instabilities.”
“The foundations for internal recovery have not yet been consolidated and long-term structural problems remain highlighted with new situations and development-related problems,” the cabinet said.
The urban unemployment rate surveyed fell to 5.3% in March, but that of China’s youngest workers aged 16 to 24 remained at 13.6%, according to the data.
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