China's economy is off to a solid start, rising 4.5% in Q1 2023
China's economy is doing well after coming out of three years of strict pandemic restrictions.
Hong Kong CNN
China's economy has a strong start in 2023 after three years of pandemic restrictions.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the country's gross national product grew 4.5% from a quarter ago.
The GDP grew by only 3% last year, falling far short of the official growth goal of "around 5.5%" as Beijing's efforts to eradicate the coronavirus caused havoc in supply chains and hurt consumer spending.
In December, after massive street protests erupted in the country and the local government ran out cash to pay the huge Covid bills incurred by the country, the authorities scrapped their zero-Covid policies. After a short period of disruptions caused by a Covid surge in the market, the economy is showing signs of improvement.
The government, at the National People's Congress meeting held last month, set a conservative growth plan for the year with a GDP of around 5%, and an employment target of 12,000,000.
Investment banks and international organisations have raised their growth predictions for China this year as the economic recovery gains momentum.
IMF's World Economic Outlook, released last week by the IMF, stated that China has'rebounded strongly' since the reopening its economy. It predicted that the world's second-largest economy would grow by 5.2% in this year, and 5.1% by 2024.