BEIJING (AFP) – China’s economy grew last year at its slowest pace in four decades as it was hammered by COVID lockdowns and a property crisis but the forecast-beating reading raised hopes for a strong recovery as it re-opens. Beijing’s rigid adherence to its zero- COVID strategy of strict containment that effectively shut the country off from the world hammered business activity last year and threw supply chains offline, rattling the global economy.
The measures meant the growth came in at just three percent last year, the worst reading since a 1.6 per cent contraction in 1976 – when Mao Zedong died – excluding pandemic-hit 2020.
National Bureau of Statistics official Kang Yi told reporters yesterday the world’s number-two economy had in 2022 “faced storms and rough waters in the global environment”, and warned “the foundation of domestic economic recovery is not solid as the international situation is still complicated and severe”.
The figure missed the government’s 5.5 per cent target and was well down from the previous year but it was better than the 2.7 per cent predicted in an AFP survey of analysts.
