The economy of Asian giant China continued to grow in the quarter which ended in September as the numbers released on Monday beat the estimates of economists and market analysts.
According to the numbers released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the gross domestic product of the Chinese economy grew by 3.9 percent from July to September when compared to the same time of the previous financial year. Economists and market analysts had earlier forecasted economic growth of 3.2 percent to 3.3 percent for the Chinese economy.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts China’s economy will expand only 3.2% in 2022, which would be the slowest rate since the 1980s, excluding the 2.4% Covid-affected pace in 2020, AP said. The people’s Republic of China has the second-largest economy in the world just below the United States of America.
Despite beating forecasts of economists and analysts, the economy of China continues to be in the red zone as the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic and the crisis in the property market influences the actual growth. This is very evident in the latest numbers as economic pointers related to property and real estate are staying down as usual.
Statistics from National Bureau states that the real estate sector contracted for the fifth straight quarter in China. The real estate sector is one of the major economic drivers of the Chinese economy as the property market is twice the size of the property market in the United States of America. Reports also suggest that prices of houses fell consecutively for the 13th month.
The statistics and reports suggest that homeowners are concerned about investing in new residential infrastructure projects. This is the result of a bigger crisis faced by the Chinese government where property developers are going bankrupt due to unfinished projects and various other economic factors. Some reports state that a large percentage of apartments that were sold in advance during the 2013-2020 period are still to be handed over to the actual owners.
Despite having constant support from the Chinese government and various incentive programs for both developers and buyers, the property market continues to face extreme economic challenges.
The retail sector is also undergoing massive challenges in the Chinese Economic landscape as back-to-back localized covid 19 lockdowns put heavy pressure on retail markets.
While retail sales grew 2.5% for the month, the pace was less than half the 5.4% pace in August, missing the 3.3% forecast and underlining China’s still fragile domestic demand, the agency reported.
Industrial output in September was up 6.3%, beating both expectations for a 4.5% expansion and August’s 4.2% rise, AP reported.
Exports in September rose 5.7% from a year earlier – the slowest pace of growth since April – and down from 7.1% in August. Imports were almost unchanged at 0.3%, shy of the 1% expansion tipped by economists, Reuters reported.