Key points
- China’s Q1 GDP grows 5.4pc vs Q4’s 5.4pc
- March data show solid retail sales and industrial output data
- Policymakers could ramp up stimulus as tariffs bite
ISLAMABAD: China’s gross domestic product expanded by 5.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, beating Reuters-polled economists’ estimates of a 5.0 per cent growth.
It also outpaced the 4.6 per cent in the third quarter, 4.7 per cent in the second quarter, 5.3 per cent in the first quarter.
US President Donald Trump has ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to slap retaliatory duties on US imports in an intensifying trade war between the world’s two biggest economies that markets fear will lead to a global recession, according to Reuters.
Beijing and Washington are locked in a fast-moving, high-stakes game of brinkmanship since US President Donald Trump launched a global tariff assault that has particularly targeted Chinese imports.
Tit-for-tat
Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145 per cent, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125 per cent toll on US imports.
Official data on Wednesday offered a first glimpse into how those trade war fears are affecting the Asian giant’s fragile recovery, which was already feeling the pressure of persistently low consumption and a property market debt crisis.
Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said that “according to preliminary estimates, the gross domestic product in the first quarter… (was) up by 5.4 per cent year on year at constant prices”.
That was above the 5.1 per cent predicted by analysts polled by AFP ahead of the data release.
Output soars
Industrial output also soared 6.5 per cent in the first quarter of the year, up from 5.7 per cent in the final three months of 2024.
And retail sales, a key gauge of consumer demand, climbed 4.6 per cent year-on-year, the NBS said.
But Beijing warned the global economic environment was becoming more “complex and severe” and that more was needed to boost growth and consumption.
“The foundation for sustained economic recovery and growth is yet to be consolidated,” the NBS said, adding there was a need for “more proactive and effective macro policies”.
