By Cui Can
China's economy is expected to see "reasonable growth" in the second quarter of this year with the containment of the epidemic and the implementation of pro-growth measures, an official said at a press conference Wednesday.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics, said that China's economic growth in the second quarter faces increasing downward pressure due to the complex and challenging international environment and the impact of sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks nationwide.
Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and director general of the Department of Comprehensive Statistics of the NBS, attends a press conference in Beijing on June 15, 2022. [Photo by Xu Xiang/China SCIO]
Despite the challenges, Fu said the country has effectively conducted epidemic prevention while maintaining economic and social development, actively worked to keep the fundamentals of China's economy unchanged, stepped up efforts to ensure smooth logistics of supplies, and further eased the burden of companies to promote the resumption of work and production. He said China's economic operation has gradually recovered from the impact of the pandemic.
Fu also said that investment has played a more prominent role in underpinning growth. Data shows that, from January to May, investment in the manufacturing sector and infrastructure construction grew by 10.6% and 6.7% year on year, respectively.
The pent-up consumer demand will be gradually unleashed as production and people's lives return to normal, Fu said. In May, China's total import and export expanded by 9.6%, 9.5 percentage points higher than April, demonstrating the strong resilience of China's foreign trade, Fu said.
This May, China announced a package of measures to stabilize the economy, which included 33 measures in six aspects. Fu said these measures will gradually take effect in June, which will help the country to achieve steady economic growth.
