China GDP: nation to lead East Asian, Pacific economic recovery in 2021 with 8.1 per cent growth

World Bank’s latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update predicts China’s economy will expand by 8.1 per cent in 2021

China’s central bank estimates the maximum the economy can expand without fuelling inflation, known as the potential growth rate, is under 6 per cent in the next five years.

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China set an economic growth target of “above 6 per cent” for 2021, but Premier Li Keqiang admitted earlier this week that growth this year could exceed a target. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:03am, 26 Mar 2021Updated: 1:22pm, 26 Mar 2021

China is expected to lead the recovery of East Asian and Pacific economies this year, but many nations will record sub-par growth as they struggle to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic, according to new World Bank forecasts released on Friday.

The World Bank’s latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update predicts China’s economy will expand by 8.1 per cent in 2021, compared with 2.3 per cent the previous year, powering a 7.4 per cent region-wide expansion, up from 1.2 per cent in 2020.

Excluding China, by far the region’s biggest economy, growth will only be 4.4 per cent in East Asia and the Pacific, an improvement on a 3.7 per cent contraction the year before but still below the long-term average.

China set an economic growth target of “above 6 per cent” for 2021, but Premier Li Keqiang admitted earlier this week that growth this year could exceed a target.

Like Hydra, the many-headed monster of Greek myth, Covid-19 is proving hard to suppress even a year after the first case was confirmed in Wuhan

World Bank

Vietnam is the other outstanding economic performer with an expected growth rate of 6.6 per cent, up from 2.9 per cent. China and Vietnam were among the relatively few countries that were only lightly hit by the pandemic and did not fall into recession in 2020.

China GDP: nation to lead East Asian, Pacific economic recovery in 2021 with 8.1 per cent growth

World Bank’s latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update predicts China’s economy will expand by 8.1 per cent in 2021 China’s central bank estimates the maximum the economy can expand without fuelling inflation, known as the potential growth rate, is under 6 per cent in the next five years.

World Bank’s latest East Asia and Pacific Economic Update predicts China’s economy will expand by 8.1 per cent in 2021

China’s central bank estimates the maximum the economy can expand without fuelling inflation, known as the potential growth rate, is under 6 per cent in the next five years.