BEIJING, April 16
(Xinhua) -- China's economy grew 18.3 percent year on year in the first quarter
of 2021, as strong domestic and foreign demands powered recovery from a low
base in early 2020 when COVID-19 stalled the world's second-largest economy.
The gross domestic
product (GDP) reached 24.93 trillion yuan (about 3.82 trillion U.S. dollars) in
Q1, up 0.6 percent from the fourth quarter of last year, data from the National
Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Friday.
The double-digit
year-on-year rebound puts average Q1 growth of 2020 and 2021 at 5 percent from
the 2019 level.
The Chinese economy
registered a 6.8-percent contraction in the Q1 of 2020 due to the novel
coronavirus. Thanks to resolute and effective virus control, the global growth
engine regained its footing with a "V-shaped" comeback to attain
three consecutive quarters of a rebound last year (3.2 percent in Q2, 4.9
percent in Q3 and 6.5 percent in Q4).
Friday's data sent
encouraging signs across the board. In Q1, China's value-added industrial
output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment went up 24.5 percent, 33.9
percent and 25.6 percent, respectively.
Driven by the
rising demand at home and abroad, total imports and exports of goods surged
29.2 percent year on year to 8.47 trillion yuan.
"Thanks to the
effective measures that the government has taken to control the pandemic and
stimulate the economy, we have observed resilient momentum in economic
indicators coming from both the production and consumption side," Hoffman
Cheong, EY China North managing partner, told Xinhua in an interview.
In particular,
catering sales had almost returned to the level at the beginning of 2019,
suggesting strong sentiment of the populace to go out, meet people and spend
money, said Cheong. "This is the underlying reason why we are confident in
China's outlook."
Despite the
economic rebound, the NBS warned of high uncertainties and instabilities as
COVID-19 continues to spread globally and the foundation for the domestic
economic recovery is yet to solidify.
"The
long-standing structural problems remain prominent with new situations and
issues arising from development," the NBS said.
In 2021, China aims
to expand its economy by over 6 percent, create more than 11 million new urban
jobs and expand domestic demand and effective investment, which are expected to
put the economy firmly back to pre-pandemic vibrancy.
It will pursue high-quality development, advance
supply-side structural reform and consolidate and expand the achievements of
the COVID-19 response and economic and social development, among other major
tasks, according to a government work report.