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Bridge building in Inner Mongolia: the only large economy with positive growth
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / VCG
As a sign of the ongoing recovery after the Corona slump at the beginning of the year, China's economy grew again in the third quarter.
The second largest economy grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year, as the Beijing statistics office announced on Monday.
That is less than many analysts had hoped.
Experts had expected an average increase of 5.5 percent.
However, the result was enough for China to more than offset the previous slump in the spring.
According to official figures, China's economy grew by 0.7 percent in the first nine months of the year.
In the first quarter of China, for the first time since official records began in 1992, economic output fell by 6.8 percent.
The economy then picked up again because the country was able to bring the virus under control faster than other states with strict measures such as the cordoning off of megacities, strict isolation and entry bans.
In the second quarter, growth was back at 3.2 percent.
As the statistics office further announced, other important indicators also showed improvements in the third quarter: Industrial production rose by 5.8 percent and retail sales recorded an increase of 0.9 percent compared to the previous year.
Economists expect China to be the only major economy this year to end the year with positive growth.
The recovery is progressing faster than expected, according to a new forecast by the International Monetary Fund last week.
According to this, Chinese economic output will grow by 1.9 percent this year, 0.9 percentage points more than in the June estimate.
For 2021, the monetary fund continues to expect growth of 8.2 percent.
For Germany, a decrease of 6.0 percent is expected this year and then an increase of 4.2 percent.
According to the forecast, the US economy will shrink by 4.3 percent in 2020 and then grow by 3.1 percent in the coming year.
In addition to extensive economic aid, China's economy has recently also benefited from stronger foreign trade.
The exports of the second largest economy rose 9.9 percent year-on-year in September, as the Beijing Customs Administration announced last week.
Accordingly, imports had increased by 13.2 percent in the same period.
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mik / dpa