The GDP growth in 2022 has exceeded expectations as December sales came in far better than spoken about.
The national bureau of statistics said GDP will grow by 3% in 2022, which was better than the 2.8% forecast in the Reuters poll.
The GDP growth number missed the target by 5.5% in 2021, and China’s growth was 8.4% from a rise of 2.2% in 2020.
Q4 GDP was up by 2.9%, beating expectations of 1.8%.
The National Bureau of Statistics director said China’s 3% growth is “Relatively fast” in light of unexpected situations and contrast to Germany, the U.S., and Japan.
However, he even said the global trade situation was not positive and that the world economy may face a period of slow economic growth, joblessness, and inflation.
“Businesses still face difficulties in production and operation, scientific and technological innovation is not strong enough, and people still have considerable difficulties in employment,” Kang said.
“We need to make strenuous efforts to promote overall economic improvement.”
Kang said he did not expect the real estate to drag down growth in 2023 as much as it did in 2022. He also said he expected consumer prices to be stable in 2023.
Speaking about the overview of 2023, Bruce Pang expects support for the property market and the ability of people to move will help retail sales recover to a rise of 8% by Q4.
The retails sales go down far more than expected:
Retail sales went down 0.2% for the year, but sales in December declined by 1.8% from 2022.
Within retail sales, catering sales went down by 6.3% in 2022. In addition, sales of cosmetics and jewelry went down for the year. On the other hand, medicine sales increased by nearly 40% from 2022.
Medicine sales increased by nearly 40% from 2022. In addition, physical goods retail sales increased by 17.2% in December.
Industrial production will increase by 3.6% in 2022. This went up by 1.3% in December.
Fixed asset investment for 2022 increased by 5.1%, slightly more than the 5% expectation.
Infrastructure investment on a year-to-year basis grew.
Real estate went down by 10% in 2022.
The unemployment rate was 5.5% as of December. However, youth unemployment hit about 20% in July.
Retail sales started to decline in October.
- Published By Team Hongkong Journalist
