Data shows the economy grew just 0.8% in the June quarter, down from 2.2% in the first three months of 2023
China’s economy expanded 6.3% in the second quarter from a year ago, falling short of market expectations as export demand remained tepid and sinking property prices sapped consumer confidence.
Compared with a year earlier, China’s GDP in the April-June period was 6.3% larger, the national bureau of statistics said on Monday, quickening from the 4.5% annual growth pace for the first three months of 2023. Economists had forecast growth to accelerate to 7.3%, according to a Reuters survey.
For the June quarter alone, growth slowed to 0.8% from a 2.2% quarter-on-quarter clip in the March quarter. That pace, though, exceeded predictions of a 0.5% expansion.
Over the past three decades, China’s growth has underpinned the global economy, providing a generation of new demand. Given last year’s extensive Covid lockdowns, 2023 is widely expected to see the country post a rapid rebound.
Now trailing only the US’s in size, China’s economy underpins prices for many commodities. It is also the source of an increasingly sophisticated array of goods from electric vehicles to aircraft and renewable energy plants and so weaker demand at home may result in more of those products being exported.
