Chinese President Xi Jinping at the fourth plenary session of the National People’s Congress on March 11, 2023 in Beijing, China.
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
China’s economy grew 5.3% in the first quarter of 2024, surpassing analyst expectations.Despite this, March retail sales and industrial output fell short of forecasts.China’s property market struggles persist, with 1Q new home sales falling nearly 31% from a year ago.
China reported robust economic growth for the first quarter of 2024.
The world’s second-largest economy grew 5.3% in the first quarter of this year from a year ago, according to the National Bureau of Statistics — beating a 4.8% growth analysts polled by Bloomberg had forecast and the 5.2% growth it chalked up in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“We have got off to a solid start,” Sheng Laiyun, the NBS’ deputy director, said at a press briefing in Beijing, per Bloomberg. He said industry was an important contributor to growth, contributing to more than one-third of first-quarter growth.
Despite the rosy figures, a closer look at the figures indicates there’s still pain ahead.
March retail sales rose 3.1% from a year ago, missing Bloomberg forecasts of 4.8% growth. Industrial output for March also missed forecasts, coming in at 4.5% — well below the 6% predicted by analysts.
In particular, China’s property market continued to be in the dumps amid a debt crisis, with first-quarter new home sales by value tanking nearly 31% from a year ago.
Notably, the data did not include China’s youth unemployment rate, which hit a record high of 21.3% in June 2023 before Beijing revamped the methodology for the metric to exclude full-time students.
China has a growth target of around 5.0% this year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
