Online Reporter
China’s gross domestic product expanded by 5,4 percent in the fourth quarter, beating Reuters-polled economists’ estimates of a 5 percent growth, and outpacing the 4,6 percent in the third quarter, 4,7 percent in the second quarter, 5,3 percent in the first quarter.
That last-quarter sprint helped lift China’s full-year GDP growth to 5 percent in 2024, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Friday, in line with the official target of “around 5 percent.”
“The shift of policy stance in September last year helped the economy to stabilise in Q4, but it requires large and persistent policy stimulus to boost economic momentum and sustain the recovery,” Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist, Pinpoint Asset Management, said in a note.
Last year’s growth was slower compared with the 5,4 percent rise in 2023, post-pandemic.
As part of an annual revision to preliminary figures, the statistics bureau in late December revised the 2023 GDP growth to 7,4 percent, according to a CNBC calculation of the official data.
In December, retail sales jumped 3,7 percent from a year earlier, exceeding Reuters’ forecast of 3,5 percent. Industrial output expanded 6,2 percent from a year earlier, versus expectations of 5,4 percent, underscoring China’s imbalance between domestic production and weak demand.
The full-year fixed asset investment rose 3,2 percent in 2024, shy of the projected 3,3 percent increase in a Reuters poll, as real estate investment drag steepened to a 10.6 percent drop, compared with the January to November period.
Kang Yi, head of the statistics bureau, said real estate was recovering. The sector’s drag on economic growth had narrowed, he said.
— CNBC.
