Workers weld at a workshop of an automobile manufacturing enterprise in Qingzhou city, East China's Shandong province, Feb 28,2021. [Photo/Xinhua]
China’s robust economic recovery persisted in January and February, boding well for strong GDP growth for the first quarter, National Bureau of Statistics data show.
The sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks in early January did not slow the pace of China’s growth, as production and consumption indicators came out better than market expectations. Industrial production continued to accelerate while domestic and external demand steadily improved, suggesting that output expansion was firmly supported by rising demand. Strong fixed asset investment signals strengthened business confidence and will fuel future production. Although some other indicators such as the manufacturing PMI and the jobless rate indicated a softening recovery, we expect them to be transitory and unlikely to alter the strong growth trend in the near term.
