China’s economy lost momentum in the second quarter, with gross domestic product expanding 0.8% against the previous three months as falling exports, weak retail sales and a moribund property sector weighed on growth, reports the Financial Times. Year-on-year, the economy grew 6.3% in the second quarter because of a low-base effect from last year, when large cities including Shanghai were locked down for an extended period. The Reuters poll had forecast 7.3% growth.
The difficulties facing the world’s second-largest economy will put further pressure on global growth and add to calls for Beijing to step up stimulus measures more than six months after it abandoned tough COVID-19 controls.
The second-quarter growth rate was stronger than the 0.5% forecast in a Reuters analysts’ poll but weaker than the 2.2% quarter-on-quarter expansion in the January-March period.
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