April 18, 2022

China's GDP grew 4.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022, maintaining a stable growth range despite "unprecedented downward pressure since the first quarter of 2020" due to COVID-19 flare-ups, supply chain snags and external uncertainties arising from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. 

The economic expansion in the first three months accelerated from the 4-percent growth rate recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021, buoyed by stratospheric infrastructure and property investment - a bright spot that had buffered subdued consumption and weakened factory production in the first quarter and is expected to buttress whole-year growth of the world's second-largest economy. 

Observers estimated that the situation in Shanghai, China's main financial center, and its knock-on effects on the country's most vibrant manufacturing base Yangtze River Delta had likely undercut the country's first-quarter GDP by 0.5 percentage points, and such effect on growth could further deteriorate in April and May, with a restorative rebound likely to surface in June and the second half after the epidemic is brought under effective control.

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https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202204/1259576.shtml