The Chinese economy appears to have largely overcome the corona crisis and started the new year with record growth. The world’s second-largest economy grew by 18.3 percent in the first quarter compared to the first three months of 2020.
It is the most significant increase since the country started tracking quarterly figures more than 30 years ago.
The solid growth can be explained by the fact that the Chinese economy collapsed early last year due to the corona pandemic. At that time, the land was almost silent for several weeks. The Chinese government pursued a “zero-covid strategy”. A rigorous lockdown and strict access controls meant that few new corona cases had been recorded in the last year, aside from minor local outbreaks. Since then, the economy has been recovering.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the economy could grow by an additional 8.1 percent this year. The Chinese government is more cautious and has set its official growth target at the People’s Congress, which just ended in Beijing, at “more than 6 percent”.
Strong foreign trade, in particular, has recently boosted the Chinese economy. The Chinese factories produce medical supplies such as corona tests and protective mouth masks on a large scale, which are exported to other countries. New laptops and other home office equipment also often come from China.
As during the global financial crisis of 2008, China is helping to give a new impetus to the world economy. German car manufacturers and many other companies active in the Chinese market recently enjoyed generous profits there.
