China’s economy grew 3.2% year-on-year in the second quarter this year, returning to growth after a record 6.8% contraction in the first quarter, official data (link in Chinese) showed Thursday, as the world’s second-largest economy recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The second-quarter GDP growth rate was higher than the median estimate of 2.9% growth in a Caixin survey (link in Chinese) of economists. In the first half of the year, China’s GDP declined 1.6% year-on-year.
Fixed-asset investment, a key driver of domestic demand that includes government-driven infrastructure spending, shrank 3.1% year-on-year (link in Chinese) in the first six months, narrowing from a 6.3% drop in the first five months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The NBS doesn’t provide investment data for individual months.
The decline in infrastructure investment moderated to 2.7% year-on-year in the first six months from a 6.3% drop in the January-to-May period.
Value-added industrial output, which measures production at factories, mines and utilities, rose 4.8% year-on-year (link in Chinese) in June after growing 4.4% in May. Retail sales, which include spending by governments, businesses and households, dropped 1.8% year-on-year (link in Chinese) in June, easing from a 2.8% decline in May.
China’s surveyed urban unemployment rate edged down to 5.7% (link in Chinese) in June from 5.9% the previous month, NBS data show.
Contact reporter Tang Ziyi (ziyitang@caixin.com) and editor Yang Ge (geyang@caixin.com)
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