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By Keith Bradsher
Reporting from Beijing
China’s economy slowed sharply in the spring at the start of the year, official figures showed on Monday, as exports fell, the housing crisis worsened and some indebted local governments had to cut spending after running out of money.
The new gross domestic product knowledge for the current quarter, April-June, underscored what has been obvious for weeks: China’s recovery after abandoning its sweeping “covid-zero” measures will be harder than Beijing and many analysts expected.
Covid not only continues to weigh on the Chinese economy; It also distorts some of its official data. The figure reported through Beijing on Monday, comparing this year with the same quarter last year, showed the economy grew by 6. 3 percent. But that reflected an improvement from a sharp slowdown in the current quarter of 2022, an era in which China’s largest city, Shanghai, was locked down for two months.
The current quarter saw an expansion of 6. 3% over the current quarter of 2022, which was slightly higher due to lockdowns.
Keith Bradsher is the Times’ Beijing bureau leader. Previously, he was bureau leader in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Detroit and Washington correspondent. He lived and reported on the pandemic in mainland China. Learn more about Keith Bradsher
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