China鈥檚 economy expanded by just 0.8 percent from April through June compared to the first three months of the year. The following chart uses by China鈥檚 National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to show the country鈥檚 quarter-on-quarter change in gross domestic product. The starred numbers are the latest provisional figures that have been provided, but can change when revised.
During the pandemic, China enforced a strict 鈥渮ero Covid鈥 policy which brought industry to a standstill. These restrictions were scrapped at the end of last year, which initially saw the economy start to rebound. However, momentum has now started to slow.
When looking at a year-on-year change, China鈥檚 economy saw a 6.3 percent uptick in Q2 2023 compared to Q2 2022, which is slower than the . 6.3 percent may look good from the outset, but it鈥檚 important to note that this is largely due to a low base, since Q2 2022 had seen significant slowdown largely due to a two-month long lockdown in Shanghai.
The NBS鈥 latest figures also revealed that retail sales growth had slowed to just 3.1 percent in June, which is down from 12.7 percent in May. Meanwhile, exports fell 8.3 percent in June compared to one year before.
