- NBS
China's economy grew by 6.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016. This is the slowest pace since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009. Growth in gross domestic product was in line with expectations, but down slightly from the 6.8% reported for the December quarter of 2015, according to the figures released by the China's National Bureau of Statistics. Despite the slight deceleration in growth, analysts suggested that the economy had a "good start" to the year, since the outlook has improved with both the manufacturing and property sectors rebounding strongly.
Alongside the GDP report, the NBS also released industrial output and fixed asset investment reports. Data showed that fundamentals in March were much stronger than forecast, suggesting that growth would pick up in the next quarter. Industrial output increased by 6.8% from a year earlier, a sharp acceleration on the 5.4% pace of February, which is well ahead of anticipated increase of 5.9%. In the meantime, fixed assets investment overshot the expected growth of 10.2% and rose by 10.7%. Consequently, a solid performance by the world's second largest economy would help to improve global demand, since the increase of GDP by 6.7% means that China is contributing as much as the US in terms of global growth in the first quarter.
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