China’s economic growth has slowed since 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic, a government crackdown on the private sector and high debt levels at property developers brought full-year growth to 2.2 per cent, its weakest since 1976.
There was some reprieve in 2021 with a growth rate of 8.4 per cent. Some of this was due to the low base in 2021, but exports also surged as the country largely recovered from an initial wave of Covid-19 outbreaks while the rest of the world remained in lockdowns.
In 2022, China’s economy grew just 3 per cent as Covid outbreaks returned to the country, underscoring the heavy costs of the government’s zero-Covid policy.
The economy grew 5.2 per cent in 2023. Although it surpassed Beijing’s goal of 5 per cent, the target was the lowest in decades and confirmed that China’s period of rapid growth had stalled.
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