China’s economy shrank for the first time since at least 1992 as drastic measures to contain the pandemic hammered production & spending.
Beijing: Chinese economy shrank for the first time in decades in the Jan-March quarter as extreme steps to contain the COVID-19 pandemic hammered production & spending, official data showed Friday.
Gross domestic product dropped to 6.8 % in the Jan-March quarter, as per figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), higher than the 6.5% drop forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll and inverting a 6% growth in the previous quarter.
The world’s second-largest economy recorded its first negative growth since it began logging quarterly data in the early 1990s.
Even as China has managed to resume substantial parts of its economy from a halt in February, analysts say legislators face an ascending fight to revive growth as the COVID-19 pandemic ravages demand globally.
However, the urban jobless rate of China was at 5.9% in March, dropping from 6.2% in February.
Complete year GDP growth estimations have declined to 1.7%, as per AFP’s poll, which would be the worst yearly growth since 1976.
Also Read: Pizza Delivery Boy Tests Positive for COVID-19, 72 Families Quarantined
The International Monetary Fund has warned that coronavirus Pandemic will trigger a global economic contraction worse than the ‘Great Depression’ and pegged China’s 2020 growth at a grim 1.2%.
The COVID-19 pandemic has infected over 2 million across the world and over 130,000 have succumbed to the disease.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
