China’s economic growth in the second quarter may have slowed to below 2 percent year-on-year due to COVID-19 outbreaks, underlining the necessity of beefing up policy adjustments to achieve this year’s growth target of around 5.5 percent, economists in and out of the country said.
With stronger support for infrastructure investment, lower market lending rates and refined COVID-19 containment measures, the Chinese economy is expected to stage a strong rebound in the third quarter and strengthen the appeal of renminbi-denominated assets, they said.
Financial markets are closely watching China’s second-quarter growth results, which are scheduled to be released next week. After expanding by 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, China’s economy has been severely hit by Omicron outbreaks, although there have been signs of recovery since May.
China’s gross domestic product growth may have slowed to 1.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter due to the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks and supply chain disruptions, said Wang Tao, head of Asia economics at UBS Investment Bank.
Wang Yiming, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said second-quarter economic growth is likely to come in at about 1 percent, meaning economic growth will have to accelerate to 7.8 percent in the second half of the year to achieve full-year growth of 5.5 percent.
“If the nation maintains a relatively high growth target, the package of pro-growth policies should be further expanded,” Wang Yiming, who is also a member of the monetary policy committee of the People’s Bank of China, the central bank, said at a webinar. – CHINA DAILY
- Latest
- Trending
