China’s economy weakens as GDP in Q3 declines to 4.9 per cent

Beijing: China’s GDP has grown by 4.9 per cent in the third quarter, down from 7.9 per cent in the second. This development confirms the slowdown of the world’s second-largest economy which was under pressure from the crisis-hit property sector, curbs on energy and tardy recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Early to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, China’s economy in the first few months this year staged impressive recovery. However, the economy was caught up in numerous headwinds, including a property sector slump, power crisis, increasingly weak consumer sentiment and soaring raw material costs. China’s GDP in Q1 was 18.3 per cent. The Q3 belied surveys of predicting five per cent growth.

China’s GDP expanded 9.8 per cent year on year in the first three quarters, putting the average growth for the period in the past two years at 5.2 per cent, according to the data released Monday from National Bureau of Statics (NBS).

Releasing the Q3 data, spokesman of the NBS, Fu Linghui said that consumption contributed around 64.8 per cent to China’s economic growth in the first three quarters of the year.

“We must note that the current uncertainties in the international environment are mounting and the domestic economic recovery is still unstable and uneven,” Fu said. “The overall national economy maintained the recovery momentum in the first three quarters. However, we must note that the current uncertainties in the international environment are mounting, and the domestic economic recovery is still unstable and uneven,” the Hong Kong-based ‘South China Morning’ quoted Fu as saying.

Nevertheless, NBS said China’s economic recovery remains uneven and unstable, and more efforts will be made to boost market vitality, release demand potential and the economy running within the reasonable range.

According to the official data, China’s retail sales of consumer goods went up 16.4 per cent year on year in the first three quarters this year. China’s retail sales of consumer goods totalled around 31.8 trillion yuan (about USD 4.9 trillion) in January-September period as per the data.

During the January-September period, China added 10.45 million new urban jobs in the first three quarters, achieving 95 per cent of the target for the whole year, the NBS data showed.