China’s Economy Grew More Than Expected Over the Summer

China’s economy grew more than expected over the summer, as the government offset some of the harm from a real estate crisis by pouring money into infrastructure construction projects, like building rail lines. Data released on Wednesday showed that gross domestic product grew from July through September compared with the prior three months. Industrial production of everything from chemicals to steel began to stabilize as the government built more roads, sewage lines and other public works. China’s economy, the world’s second largest, has struggled since the spring, as housing sales…

The Scientist Who Foresaw China’s Stagnation

Adam Posen, the president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, described China as suffering from a case of economic long Covid. In an article in the September-October issue of Foreign Affairs, he wrote: Like a patient suffering from that chronic condition, China’s body economic has not regained its vitality and remains sluggish even now that the acute phase — three years of exceedingly strict and costly “zero Covid” lockdown measures — has ended. The condition is systemic, and the only reliable cure — credibly assuring ordinary Chinese people and…

What China’s Economic Woes May Mean for the U.S.

The news about China’s economy over the past few weeks has been daunting, to put it mildly. The country’s growth has fallen from its usual brisk 8 percent annual pace to more like 3 percent. Real estate companies are imploding after a decade of overbuilding. And China’s citizens, frustrated by lengthy coronavirus lockdowns and losing confidence in the government, haven’t been able to consume their way out of the country’s pandemic-era malaise. If the world’s second-largest economy is stumbling so badly, what does that mean for the biggest? Short answer:…

Is China’s Economy Now Bigger Than America’s?

My most recent column was about the troubles facing the Chinese economy, which appear to be serious. However, I was careful to acknowledge that China’s three-decade economic miracle has made it a bona fide economic superpower and that its current problems aren’t likely to change that fact. But how super is China’s power, anyway? Is it now the world’s biggest economy, or does it still lag behind the United States? Yes. You see, it depends on what measure you use. And there is no single measure that is clearly right.…

China’s Second-Quarter G.D.P. Shows Post-Covid Rebound Faltered

Because of the huge impact of the closure of Shanghai, which has 25 million people, comparing this spring and last spring provides “a misleading picture of China’s economic performance,” said Diana Choyleva, the chief economist at Enodo Economics in London. Instead, analysts said, a more accurate measure of the economy emerges by comparing the second quarter of 2023 with the previous three months, after the “zero Covid” policy was scrapped. And by that measure, output was only 0.8 percent higher in the second quarter than the first quarter. When projected…

China’s Economy Stumbled Last Year With Covid Lockdowns Hobbling Growth

The Chinese economy stumbled in 2022, numbers released Tuesday show, in one of its worst performances in decades as growth was dragged down by numerous Covid lockdowns followed by a deadly outbreak in December that swept across the country with remarkable speed. China grew 3 percent for the year — less than half what it was in 2021 and far short of Beijing’s target of 5.5 percent. Other than 2020, it was the most disappointing showing since 1976, the year after the death of Mao Zedong when the economy declined…

China’s GDP Growth Slows as Property and Energy Take a Toll

Volkswagen, the market leader in China, said on Friday that its production had been falling as the company faced an ever-worsening chip shortage and other supply chain issues. The company doesn’t have enough cars to fill customers’ and dealerships’ orders, creating a backlog. “Our priority is to work off our backlog,” said Stephan Wöllenstein, the chief executive of Volkswagen’s China division. Finding Strength in Exports For months, economists have made the same prediction: The fast growth of China’s exports cannot last. The economists were wrong. China’s exports kept surging through…