Achieving A Record Since 1992, China's Economic Growth Reaches 18.3 Percent In The First Quarter Of 2021

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - China's economy has experienced a tremendous revival. The Bamboo Curtain country's economic growth reached 18.3 percent year on year (yoy) in the first quarter of 2021.

Cited from Reuters, Friday, April 16, this is the fastest increase on record in the January-March period due to recovery from slump due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Chinese government data, this realization of economic growth is the strongest since at least 1992, when the official quarterly growth records were made.

However, the realization of gross domestic product (GDP) growth was slower than the 19 percent forecast by economists in a Reuters poll and followed the 6.5 percent growth in the fourth quarter of last year.

The National Bureau of Statistics released, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, China's GDP rose 0.6 percent in January-March. Again, this realization missed expectations for a 1.5 percent increase and a revised 3.2 percent increase in the previous quarter.

China's economy has largely recovered from the paralysis caused by COVID-19 in the past year. The economic rebound in the Bamboo Curtain country was triggered by advances in global vaccination, strong exports, and the stimulus provided by the government.

According to a Reuters poll, the world's second-largest economy is expected to grow 8.6 percent this year. This follows the 2.3 percent increase China scored last year, which was the weakest in 44 years but still makes China the only major economy to have avoided a contraction.

However, there are doubts that China can maintain its rapid pace of expansion as the low base of comparisons seen in the first half of last year fades.