Chinese officials said Monday that gross domestic product grew by 4. 9% in the third quarter compared to the previous year, the Chinese economy returned to its pre-coronavirus trajectory six months after the pandemic emptied its economy.
The 4. 9% expansion figure for the third quarter did not meet expectations, but it brings China’s trajectory closer to forecasts made earlier this year for a 2020 expansion of between 5. 5% and 6%, a forecast made before the pandemic hit the world, killing more than a million more people and crushing the global economy.
Expansion in the third quarter is expanding by 3. 2% in the quarter of the moment, following a historic contraction of 6. 8% in the first 3 months of the year, when the government blocked Wuhan City in central China in an effort to curb the immediate spread of Virus.
The International Monetary Fund forecasts that China’s economy will grow by 1. 9% by 2020, leading it to become the world’s leading economy in growing this pandemic this year.
By contrast, the U. S. economy is expected to contract by 4. 3 percent, while the eurozone is contracting by 8. 3 percent, the IMF said in its latest update this month.
Monday’s third-quarter expansion figure provides additional evidence of China’s relative strength and places the country’s economy in territory during the first nine months of the year, with an expansion of 0. 7% over the past year.
Other economic symptoms published Monday showed signs of strength: China’s overall unemployment rate, the urban unemployment rate surveyed, fell to 5. 4% in September, less than 5. 6% in August, and Beijing’s target of about 6%.
China has revived its economy in approximately 3 stages: first, by stopping the peak of economic activity from the end of January, a blockade that lasted largely until the end of March.
Since April, the government has sought to revive the factories. With increased production, China has been increasing its share of global exports, sending medical devices such as masks and sterilizers, as well as home-work PC appliances to consumers. around the world, while other exporting countries suffered their own blockades.
If the current quarter represented the recovery of Chinese factories, then the third quarter marked the recovery of its customers, and the government, having almost completely eliminated the coronavirus within its borders, encouraged customers to start venturing out of their homes and opening their wallets.
In August, Chinese retail sales rose from last year for the first time in 2020 and on Monday, China said retail sales increased by 3. 3% in September, exceeding economists’ expectations of a 1. 7% expansion.
The available source of income for Chinese citizens also expanded in the third quarter for the first time this year, officials said Monday, 0. 6% more than the previous year.
U. S. consumer-oriented corporations operating in China have benefited from a decline in domestic demand.
Domino’s Pizza Inc. said china’s sharp expansion of retail sales during the third quarter represented a lifeline for foreign pizza operations at a time when nearly three hundred of the company’s global sites were being shut down by coronavirus, Executive Chairman Richard Allison told investors this month: calling China a “formidable good fortune in 2020. “
“While we have experienced a slowdown in some of our markets around the world, China is not one of them,” Allison said, predicting that China would soon be the company’s largest market founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Outside the United States.
Manufacturer of McCormick spices and seasonings
In China, traffic at fast food restaurants “has returned to levels close to generals,” said Lawrence Kurzius, McCormick’s president and chief executive, in Hunt Valley, Maryland, due last month.
However, spending remains moderate, according to some measures.
During an eight-day national holiday that began on October 1, 637 million other people traveled within the country, spending about $69 billion, according to official figures, or about 70% of spending on the shortest holiday of seven days last year.
The Chinese box office, which has been greatly affected by restrictions restricting the capacity of movie theaters, has amassed the equivalent of about $580 million on vacation according to the country’s Ministry of Commerce, the second highest number of vacations in October in Chinese history, so far still a long way from last year’s record of $750 million.
This generated considerations about the robustness of the customer’s recovery, after waiting for a combination of repressed demand, additional vacation days and closed borders would force travelers to redirect their expenses at home and lead to a more powerful uptick.
“The uptick is weaker than expected given the sharp fall in travel,” Betty Wang, Senior Chinese economist at investment bank ANZ, told his clients. “It’s too early to be complacent. “
Xin Xin, a mother of two, flew with her husband and children to southwestern Yunnan Province for her eight-day vacation after months of locking up in Beijing.
“It was my first genuine vacation this year. In fact, I don’t need to be trapped in the same city anymore,” Xin said. The value of their airfares was higher than usual, as more people chose to stay this year, given the prolonged blockade and difficulty of traveling abroad.
Hotels and other hotels were almost twice as expensive as before and yet rooms were still temporarily purchased, Xin said prices at some five-star hotels near tourist sites soared due to increased demand, forcing them to settle for more modest accommodation.
Meanwhile, Zhou Misi and his circle of relatives stayed in Beijing during the eight-day break, racking up five films in the cinema.
Ms. Zhou and her family, discouraged by reports of heavy traffic jams inside and outside the capital and around picturesque parts of China, to take credit for the fact that cinemas were open after being closed for months. At the end of July, Beijing’s municipal government now allows for 75% occupation in theaters.
Ms. Zhou was surprised to see that the theater was almost completely complete when she went to see an IMAX movie in the morning.