China’s economy grows 5.3% in first quarter of 2024, beats expectations | 5 key points

The gross domestic product (GDP) of China, Asia’s largest economy, grew by 5.3% year-on-year in the first quarter or the January-March period of fiscal year 2023-24, as per the official data released on Tuesday, April 16.

The growth rate clocked by Beijing has surpassed the estimate of 4.6%, as projected ahead of the release of data by the economists polled by news agency Reuters.

The 5.3% GDP growth logged by China is marginally higher as compared to the 5.2% growth recorded in the fourth quarter (October-December period) of 2023.

China GDP growth: Here are 5 key things to know

• Sequentially, the economy has grown by 1.6% in the January-March period, according to the data shared by China’s National Bureau of Statistics. This is higher than the Reuters poll estimate of 1.4% growth, and also sharper than the 1.2% quarter-on-quarter growth recorded in the October-December 2023 period.

• The growth in the first quarter was driven partly by external demand, as the amount of exports climbed by 14% year-on-year, analysts pointed out.

• For the entire 2024, China has set a growth target of around 5%. This is higher as compared to Morgan Stanley’s revised growth forecast of 4.8%.

• In a separate set of data released by Beijing this week, it was found that the industrial output for March grew by 4.5% year-on-year. This missed the analysts’ expectation of 6% growth.

• The data showed that China’s real-estate sector, which has been bleeding in the post-COVID-19 period, continued to exhibit weakness. The cumulative investments in properties dropped by 9.5% year-on-year in the first quarter. The data may further raise concern for Chinese policymakers, as the amount of floor space of new commercial buildings sold during the period dropped by 19.4%.