China’s GDP Growth Drops to 0.4% in Second Quarter

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Chinese GDP growth has seen a sharp deceleration in the second quarter, following the reimposition of Covid-related lockdowns across multiple parts of the country.

GDP growth for the second quarter came in at just 0.4% compared to the same period last year, according to figures released by China’s bureau of statistics on Friday. The lacklustre print compares to a Reuters forecast of 1%, as well as growth of 4.8% in the first quarter.

While the Chinese government set an official GDP growth target for 2022 of around 5.5% in early March, a CNBC survey of forecasts by major investment banks found that the median expectation now stands at 3.4%.

Despite the sharp slowdown in growth China nonetheless saw a robust rise in retail sales in June, with growth of 3.1% compared to the same period last year. This included growth in online sales of physical goods of 8.3%