People buy Apple products at the new flagship Apple store on its opening day after an outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sanlitun, Beijing, China, July 17, 2020.
Thomas Peter | Reuters
BEIJING – China reported gross domestic product in the first quarter a touch below expectations, as industrial production disappointed, but retail sales exceeded.
GDP rose 18.3% in the first three months of a year ago, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. This is slightly below the expectations of a 19% increase, according to analysts polled by Reuters.
The increase comes from a contraction in the first quarter of last year, when the economy fell by 6.8% during the Covid-19 outbreak. China was the first country to face the disease, and the economy returned to growth until the second quarter of last year.
GDP grew by 10.3% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2019, the statistics office said.
China also said retail sales rose 34.2% in March, exceeding 28% growth expectations.
Industrial production rose 14.1% in March, with Reuters forecasting a 17.2% increase.
The slower growth in industrial production came despite the fact that more workers stayed during the spring festival and did not travel home for what could be a month-long vacation.
The statistics bureau warned in a statement in English that the global spread of Covid-19 and “the international landscape is complicated by great uncertainties and instabilities.”
“The Foundation for Internal Recovery has not yet been strengthened, and long-term structural issues remain prominent with new situations and development issues,” the office said.
The studied urban unemployment rate fell to 5.3% in March, but that of the youngest workers in China between the ages of 16 and 24 remained at 13.6%, the data show.
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