Chinese Faring Well in This Crisis- Ridden Period, Official Figures Show

While Bloomberg and other financial media are wringing their hands over the reduction in China’s growth rate, warning that it will have disastrous results because of China’s continued Zero COVID policy, figures released on April 18 by the State Council don’t look at all bad considering the circumstances. GDP was up 4.8% year-on-year. Value added in primary industry (agricultural industry and associated services) was up by 6%; secondary industry (manufacturing) was up by 5.8%; and the tertiary industry (services) was up by 4%. Total value added by industrial enterprises went up by 6.5% and high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing increased by 14.2% and 8.3% respectively. Imports and exports increased by 10.7%, with imports gaining 7.5% and exports rising by 13.4%. Investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) reached 10,487.2 billion yuan, up by 9.3% over the previous year. Specifically, the investment in infrastructure was up by 8.5% year on year; that in manufacturing up by 15.6%, and that in real estate development up by 0.7%.