China’s economic growth has embraced an encouraging start in the first quarter of the year (Q10).
This followed belief of foreign institutions that China’s economic recovery has gained a strong momentum, which is expected to extend in the second quarter.
Many foreign institutions begin to raise their expectations for China’s economic growth.
David Chao, a global market strategist for Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) at Invesco, said that “China’s robust economic data in the first quarter is in line with expectations, Consumer spending measured by retail sales has increased, indicating the country’s consumption growth has accelerated”.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on April 16, that China’s retail sales of consumer goods went up 33.9 per cent year on year in the first quarter, the average Q1 growth for the past two years stood at 4.2 per cent.
Analysts with the Fidelity International noted that thanks to the effective measures that the government had taken to control the epidemic and stimulate the economy, China has taken the lead in realizing economic recovery in the world, setting an example for other major economies to seek recovery.
The data released on April 16 showed that China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached 24.93 trillion yuan in Q1, up 18.3 per cent year on year.
Foreign institutions are optimistic about China’s economic performance in the second quarter.
Lu Ting, Chief China economist with securities firm Nomura predicted that China’s GDP growth in the second quarter is expected to accelerate to 2.0 per cent from the previous quarter and the year-on-year growth rate is likely to reach 8.1 per cent.
Nomura raised China’s annual GDP growth forecast to 8.9 per cent from the previous 8.8 per cent.
Wang Tao, chief China economist with Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), said: “Thanks to the continued improvement in China’s labour market and the possible further rebound in domestic consumption, we will revise China’s GDP growth for 2021 from 8.2 per cent to 9 per cent.”
Foreign institutions generally believed that China’s economic recovery in the second quarter and in the future would rely more on the recovery of the service industry.
Data during the three-day tomb-sweeping day holiday that ran from April 3 to April 5 showed that the number of tourists and hotel orders in the country have witnessed a substantial growth. (Xinhua/NAN)
