China’s GDP Growth Surges to 5.3% in First Quarter of 2024 Despite Real Estate Crisis

China said on Tuesday: local production In the first quarter of the year, it achieved a growth of 5.3%, a percentage that exceeded what experts had expected and was achieved despite Real estate crisis Which is hitting the country and slowing consumption levels due to economic fear.

Several experts, polled by Agence France-Presse, had expected the growth rate of China’s economy in the first quarter of the year to reach 4.6%, but the numbers published by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday exceeded the experts. expected, as the quarterly growth rate reached 5.3%, that is, More than the goal set by Beijing for this year, which is around 5%. China’s economy grew by around 5.2% in 2023, and 3% in 2022, under the influence of the Covid pandemic.

National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Sheng Liun told reporters, “In the first quarter of the year, China’s economy continued its momentum and got off to a good start,” attributing growth to the measures taken by the government, and confirming that these measures are bearing fruit. The country’s value-added industrial output, an important economic indicator, also rose 6.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2024. Industrial output is used to measure the activities of companies whose main annual revenue is ‘ reach at least 20 million yuan to measure.

China is stepping up its efforts to save the fake real estate sector. Chinese media reported last February that government banks had encouraged lending for housing projects under a “white list” mechanism aimed at injecting liquidity into the sector affected by the crisis.

At meetings of the National People’s Congress last month, China’s leaders promised to improve real estate sector policies, including increasing financing for developers and building more affordable housing.

Although this quarterly growth rate is considered an unattainable dream for most of the world’s major economies, it remains at the lowest levels in China’s history since 1990 when it reached 3.9%, plus during the Covid pandemic.

The world’s second largest economy is suffering from many serious problems, including a real estate crisis, higher youth unemployment, deflation, and an aging population.

Earlier in April, credit rating agency Fitch revised China’s economic outlook from stable to negative, saying the government’s debt is likely to accumulate as it tries to shore up the economy. from the slowdown caused by the fake real estate sector, in an amount commensurate with. The same step was taken by Moody’s Investors Services in December 2023.

(AFP, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed)