{"id":128452,"date":"2022-07-22T05:03:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T05:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=128452"},"modified":"2022-07-22T05:03:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T05:03:18","slug":"china-economy-logs-weak-growth-in-q2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/business\/china-economy-logs-weak-growth-in-q2\/","title":{"rendered":"China Economy Logs Weak Growth In Q2"},"content":{"rendered":"
China’s economy<\/span> expanded at a weaker pace in the second quarter hit hard by the strict zero-COVID policy, casting doubt over Beijing’s ability to achieve its growth target of around 5.5 percent.<\/p>\n Gross domestic product grew only 0.4 percent on a yearly basis in the second quarter, following the first quarter’s 4.8 percent expansion, data from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed Friday. GDP was expected to climb 1.0 percent. <\/p>\n Slow GDP growth in the second quarter shows that fiscal stimulus helped to avoid an economic contraction, ING economist Iris Pang said. <\/p>\n “Unless we see a lot of infrastructure being put into construction activities, we believe that it will still be challenging for the economy to reach 5.5 percent growth,” said Pang.<\/p>\n The official GDP figures are likely to eke out growth of 3-4 percent this year but the reality on the ground will be closer to zero growth across the year as a whole, economists at Capital Economics said. <\/p>\n On a quarterly basis, GDP decreased 2.6 percent in the second quarter, bigger than the expected 1.5 percent fall. <\/p>\n In the first half of 2022, the economy expanded 2.5 percent from the previous year, which was well below the government’s full year target of around 5.5 percent. <\/p>\n However, the June data showed improvement in economic activity as restrictions were eased. <\/p>\n Industrial production growth improved to 3.9 percent from 0.7 percent. But this was slower than economists’ forecast of 4.1 percent.<\/p>\n Retail sales advanced 3.1 percent annually, reversing the 6.7 percent fall in May. Sales were forecast to remain flat in June. <\/p>\n During the January to June period, fixed asset investment logged an annual growth of 6.1 percent versus economists’ forecast of 6.0 percent. <\/p>\n The surveyed jobless rate fell to 5.5 percent in June from 5.9 percent in May. <\/p>\n Elsewhere, the People’s Bank of China has retained the one-year medium-term lending facility rate at 2.85 percent and the seven-day reverse repurchase agreement rate at 2.1 percent. <\/p>\n The central bank injected liquidity of CNY 100 billion via one-year MLF and CNY 3 billion through seven-day reverse repo operations on Friday. <\/p>\n