China GDP: economy ends coronavirus-ravaged year with strong growth surge
- China’s economy grew by 2.3 per cent in 2020, the lowest growth rate since 1976, but it is likely to be the only major economy to have expanded last year
- Rapid acceleration at the end of the year means the economy was growing more strongly than it was before the coronavirus pandemic hit at the end of 2019
01:33
China’s economy accelerated at end of 2020, but virus-hit annual growth lowest in 45 years
China’s economy grew by 2.3 per cent in 2020, in a dramatic turnaround since the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the country in the early part of the year, according to new figures released on Monday.
The annual growth rate was the lowest since the Chinese economy shrank by 1.6 per cent at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976.
But it comes as other countries struggle to contain the effects of the pandemic, with China expected to be the only major economy to have expanded in 2020.
The dramatic rebound was highlighted by a significant acceleration over the last three months of 2020, when China’s economy grew by 6.5 per cent from a year earlier, ahead of analysts’ forecasts of 6.2 per cent growth, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Monday.
This meant that quarterly growth was higher than the 6.0 per cent reported in the fourth quarter of 2019, before the effects of the virus took hold. It was also a remarkable shift from the first quarter of 2020, when the economy suffered a dramatic collapse, shrinking by 6.8 per cent, in the first quarterly shrinkage since records began.
Ning Jizhe, the head of the NBS, said that “the main targets of economic and social development [in 2020] have been completed better than expected”.
“China is expected to become the only one major economy in the world to achieve positive economic growth throughout the year,” said Ning, adding that quarterly GDP growth “have returned to the normal level”.
That the size of the Chinese economy also topped 100 trillion yuan (US$15.4 trillion) for the first time last year, marked another symbolic win for the Chinese Communist Party.