The construction site of a residential and commercial complex, November 9, 2021 in Nanning (China) (AFP / Archives / STR)
China achieved annual growth of 8.1% in 2021, the highest in nearly a decade, despite a real estate crisis and an epidemic rebound which are weighing on the recovery of the Asian giant.
Chinese growth, however, slowed in the fourth quarter (+4%), compared to 4.9% in the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS) said on Monday.
China’s economy is facing “triple pressures”, namely contracting demand, strains on supply chains and lowered targets, Ning Jizhe said at a press conference on Monday. a BNS official.
The official figure for gross domestic product (GDP) for 2021 is higher than the predictions of analysts polled by AFP (+8%).
This is its fastest pace since 2012. Beijing had set itself growth of 6% for 2021.
In the last quarter of 2021, however, the growth of the Asian giant ran out of steam.
In the first quarter, growth was still 18.3%. A high rate due to a weak basis of comparison with the beginning of 2020 when the epidemic paralyzed activity.
Although subject to caution, the official growth figure is still scrutinized, given the weight of China in the global economy. The country thus appears as a barometer of recovery.
In 2020, China was one of the few economies to post positive growth (+2.3%), when the Covid-19 struck down the rest of the world – this rate, however, was the weakest in four decades.
The country has largely recovered from the initial shock of the pandemic, but sporadic outbreaks of Covid-19 continue to disrupt activity.
The “zero Covid” policy, which made it possible to quickly stem the epidemic in 2020, comes with a high social and economic cost. The service sector (leisure, tourism, hotels and restaurants, transport, etc.) has still not returned to its pre-pandemic level.
Retail sales, the main indicator of consumption, thus posted their worst performance in December (+1.7%) since September 2020.
The recovery is also weakened by a surge in the price of raw materials and a crisis in real estate with the setbacks of the promoter Evergrande, on the verge of bankruptcy.
For its part, Chinese industrial production rebounded in December (+4.3% over one year) against +3.8% the previous month, with an increase of 9.6% over one year.
© 2022 AFP
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