China's economy grew faster-than-expected in the first quarter, data showed on Tuesday, offering some relief to officials as they try to shore up growth in the face of protracted weakness in the property sector and mounting local government debt.
Item 1 of 4 A worker labours at a construction site in Beijing, China April 9, 2024. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File PhotoBEIJING, April 16 - China's economy grew faster-than-expected in the first quarter, data showed on Tuesday, offering some relief to officials as they try to shore up growth in the face of protracted weakness in the property sector and mounting local government debt.
Gross domestic product grew 5.3% in January-March from the year earlier, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed, comfortably above analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 4.6% increase and slightly faster than the 5.2% expansion in the previous three months. The government is drawing on infrastructure work - a well-used playbook- to help lift the economy as consumers are wary of spending and businesses lack confidence to expand., producer prices and bank lending showed that momentum could falter again and reinforced calls for more stimulus to shore up growth.
Growth of retail sales, a gauge of consumption, rose 3.1% year-on-year in March, against a forecast increase of 4.6% and slowing from a 5.5% increase in the January-February period. Most investors appeared to take the headline GDP surprise with a pinch of salt given the weakness of the March data.The crisis in the property sector has been a major drag on China's economy as it has rippled across business and consumer confidence, investment plans, hiring decisions and stock prices.
With the Federal Reserve and other developed economies showing no urgency to start cutting interest rates, China may also face a longer period of subpar export growth in a further blow to policymakers' hopes of engineering a strong economic recovery.
MTPIX TOPNWS CEN ECI ECO GDP GEN IPR MCE NEWS1 PLCY POL PXP REAM RWS TOPCMB EASIA ASXPAC EMRG CN ASIA ECON CSENT INT
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