China's Economy Grew 2.3 Percent, Accelerating Beyond Analyst Expectations

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - China's economy last year grew higher than analysts estimated. It was also found that the Bamboo Curtain Country in the middle of the world is affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

China's economy grew 2.3 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year. This is in fact China's slowest annual growth rate in decades.

However, during a year when the pandemic crippled the economies of the world's major economies into recession, China was at the forefront of the list of countries to have avoided recession.

In fact, China's 2020 economic growth achievement has also beat the prediction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which estimates that China's economy will grow 1.9 percent.

"China's economic performance is better than we expected," said Ning Jizhe, a spokesman for China's National Bureau of Statistics, quoted by CNN, Monday, January 18.

China scrapped its economic growth target last year for the first time in decades as the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a historic blow to the economy. China's gross domestic product (GDP) plunged nearly 7 percent in the first quarter of 2020 as most countries went on lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

However, since then, the Chinese government has sought to spur economic growth through major infrastructure projects and by offering cash assistance to stimulate public spending.

These steps appear to be working. The pace of China's recovery accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2020, growing 6.5 percent in the October-to-December 2020 period compared to the previous year.

In fact, this achievement was even faster than the economic growth of 4.9 percent recorded in the third quarter of 2020. The industrial sector is a huge driver of China's economic growth, which experienced a 7.3 percent jump in December 2020 compared to the previous year.

"The Chinese economy is strengthening, while much of the world is struggling to maintain a balance," wrote Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC.