China’s economy recorded year-on-year growth of 3.9% in the third quarter of the year, according to data released today, signaling a recovery in economic activity, but still below the target set by Beijing.
The data represents a recovery from the 0.4% growth pace achieved in the previous quarter, between March and June, when several key cities in the country were subject to strict lockdowns, including Shanghai, the country’s economic ‘capital’, in scope of the ‘zero cases’ policy of covid-19.
Overall, the Chinese economy grew by 3% between January and September, far below the official growth target set by the Chinese government for 2022, of “about 5.5%”.
The World Bank has already lowered its forecast for China’s GDP growth this year, from “between 4% and 5%” to 2.8%.
The publication of the data was scheduled for October 18, but the National Statistics Office (GNE) suddenly postponed the announcement, without offering any explanation, which aroused suspicion among some analysts.
According to sources quoted by the Bloomberg agency, the delay was due to the fact that the person responsible for signing the physical documents for publication of the data was isolated in the ‘health bubble’ of the 20th Congress of the Communist Party due to epidemic prevention measures.
GDP data for the third quarter beat analysts’ expectations, who had forecast a 3.4% recovery from the same period in 2021 and a 3.5% recovery from the second quarter of the year.
In comparison with the previous quarter, the Chinese economy also grew by 3.9% between June and September.
The GNE also released data for September on industrial production (up 6.3% year-on-year), retail sales (+2.5%), investment in real estate (up 5.9% overall the first three quarters) or the official urban unemployment rate, which went from 5.3% to 5.5%.
