The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics has released reports Monday that the country’s 3rd quarter GDP grew 4.9% compared to last year. It means that despite the coronavirus pandemic, China has experienced growth for three quarters of 2020 compared to just 0.7% in 2019.
There are also reports that Chinese economic experts had their eyes on a 5.2% GDP growth in the 3rd quarter based on the estimates by Wind Information. The financial database information site also considered a low recovery of Chinese residents’ consumption as uncertainty about the coronavirus pandemic remains.
The bureau mentioned that the Chinese economy could sustain its recovery, and remarkable efforts are also being made to control and prevent the epidemic. The report also considered the international environment as the pandemic remains a severe threat. It described China’s economy as still in recovery and recommended that the principles for sustaining recovery should be significantly considered.
The report also said that retail sales increased in September by 3.3%, which is a 0.9% increase in the 3rd quarter of 2020. In the first nine months of 2020, sales shrunk by 7.2%. Meanwhile, online sales improved by 15.3% compared to 2019. Online sales also accounted for about 24% of retail sales.
The services industry has experienced the most growth for the previous years but slowed down to 0.4% in the first to third quarters of 2020. Fixed asset investment increased by 0.8% during the first quarter, while the industrial sector experienced an increase of 6.9% in September compared to 2019.
Chinese unemployment rates decreased in September by 5.4%. However, there are some doubts about these figures’ accuracy as the unemployment rate has remained below 6.2% in February. It was the time when COVID-19 was at a peak in China.
The unemployment rate in urbanized areas is around 5.4% in September. This value was lower than the 5.6% jobless rate in August and about 6.2% in February. The government is planning on creating 9 million new jobs in the urban areas in 2020. These statistics are lower than the target of 11 million in 2019. Last year, China made 13.52 million new jobs in urban areas.
The unemployment data is not an accurate description as it does not consider migrant workers working in many urbanized areas. In May, Premier Li Keqiang mentioned before the National People’s Congress that China wouldn’t set a 2020 economic growth target.
The International Monetary Fund or IMF noted that the Chinese economy would improve by 1.9% with an increase of 0.9% in 2020. The IMF also said that China is the only G20 economy that will expand in 2020.
➡ Looking to get featured on Future Sharks?
