Exports, the fastest expansion since 2011, were driven by consumption; Clouds likely to fall in birth rate
China’s economy grew 8.1% in 2021 to reach $18 trillion, although slow growth in the previous quarter and the lowest birth rate since 1949 became a concern for policymakers.
Last year’s expansion was the fastest since 2011 and 2020 marked a strong recovery after growth fell to a 44-year low of 2.2% as the country battled the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan and months later. Dealt with the lockdown.
The rebound was driven by a 30% increase in imports and exports as well as strong business performance with improving domestic retail sales. Data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday showed that exports contributed to a growth of 20.9%, while consumption contributed 65.4%.
Retail sales grew 12.5% while real estate valuations rose 4.9%. However, overall growth slowed to 4% in the previous quarter, from 4.9% in the third quarter.
A key reason for the slowdown was a sharp fall in real estate investments, which declined by nearly 14% in December compared to the previous year, in the wake of the government curbing the property market and debt troubles at several major real estate firms. matched. Take steps to check the debt-fuelled expansion of the sector.
Heading into the country’s new year, China, which avoided a major second wave with its strict ‘zero-COVID’ approach that enabled domestic recovery but came at the cost of continued international isolation, stemmed from the proliferation of new clusters. Dealing with the more transmissible Omron variant. This has led to a renewed lockdown in many cities and could be a major concern for development in 2022.
dangerous fall
Another significant – and long-term – concern from Monday’s figures was an alarming decline in China’s birth rate with a national growth rate of 0.34 per thousand, meaning the birth rate was slightly higher than the national death rate, allowing family planning to be relaxed. The ban by allowing a ‘three child policy’ despite the steps of
NBS said 10.6 million babies were born last year, down from 12 million in 2020 and the lowest number since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 – from the worst years of the early 1960s during Mao’s Great even less. Jump forward’.
“The most shocking part of the data released today is that the natural growth of the population has declined…[for] Below 1.0 for the first time since the data became available,” the South China Morning Post quoted economist Zhang Zhiwei as saying. “The demographic challenge is well known, but the pace of population aging is clearly faster than expected.”
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