China posts 2.3pc growth in pandemic-hit 2020

China the only major economy to report economic growth in 2020, as rebound accelerates faster than expected in 4th quarter.

A woman walks in the central business district in Beijing. Picture: AFP

China’s economy expanded by 2.3 per cent in 2020, roaring back from a historic contraction in the early months of the year to become the only major world economy to grow in what was a pandemic-ravaged year.

China’s ability to grow, even as the world struggled to control a raging pandemic that has killed more than two million people, underscores the country’s success in largely taming the coronavirus within its borders and further cements its place as the dominant economy in Asia.

China’s economy, the world’s second largest, finished the year on a high note. Gross domestic product rose 6.5 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The results topped expectations. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected growth of 6 per cent in the fourth quarter and an expansion of 2.2 per cent for the full year.

By comparison, China’s GDP rose by 3.2 per cent and 4.9 per cent in the second and third quarters of the year, respectively, after suffering a historic 6.8 per cent contraction in the first.

By logging 6.5 per cent growth in the final quarter, China’s economy has reclaimed the growth trajectory that it had been on before the coronavirus first began to spread across the city of Wuhan around a year ago.

In the last three months of 2019, the last full quarter before the coronavirus began disrupting the global economy, China’s GDP rose 6 per cent from a year earlier, contributing to a 6.1 per cent expansion for the full year.

Dow Jones Newswires