China’s economy grew 6.9% in the first quarter due to greater manufacturing and energy output.
China’s economy grew 6.9% in the first quarter as manufacturing and energy output rose and state-owned companies continued to spend heavily on infrastructure, according to government data released Monday.
The year-over-year growth for the quarter beat economists’ average estimate of 6.8% and outpaced the full-year target of 6.5%. Its gross domestic product totaled 18.07 trillion yuan, or $2.63 trillion.
It was the fastest GDP growth since the third quarter of 2015, underscoring the resilience of the world’s second largest economy amid an industrial capacity glut in the country and tough talk from the Trump administration seeking revised trade deals.
Manufacturing grew 7.4%, while production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas and water jumped 8.9%. Mining fell by 2.4%.
«The first quarter was a solid one for the Chinese economy, supported by a pickup in industrial activity and residential real estate investment, » wrote Bill Adams, economist at the PNC Financial Services Group, in an investor note.
With the Chinese government increasingly emphasizing technology development, the service sector grew 8.3% from a year ago. «Information transmission, software and information technology services, and transport, storage and postal services maintained high growth rates, » according to a statement from the National Bureau of Statistics in China.
