At a factory in Nanjing, China, October 19, 2020. -

Dongxu Fang / Costfoto / Sipa USA /

At first glance, the statistic may seem good.

China was in fact in 2020 one of the few economies in the world to post positive growth (+ 2.3%), despite the coronavirus pandemic.

But this is in fact, over one year, the smallest increase in its GDP in 44 years.

6.1% growth in 2019

In 2020, the Chinese economy "faced a serious and complex situation both at home and abroad [...] due in particular to the enormous consequences of the epidemic" of coronavirus, admitted Monday during 'a press conference Ning Jizhe, an official of the National Bureau of Statistics (BNS).

The rate of increase in GDP is thus sharply down compared to 2019, when Chinese growth was 6.1%, already at its lowest level in nearly three decades.

The first country affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, China experienced a historic decline in its growth in the first quarter of 2020 (-6.8%), after unprecedented containment measures which weighed on activity.

The gradual improvement in sanitary conditions from spring, however, allowed GDP to rebound.

In the last quarter of 2020, it registered at 6.5%, thus returning to a pre-pandemic level, said the National Bureau of Statistics.

A figure subject to caution

In the end, unlike most other countries that should announce a recession, "the Chinese economy has experienced an enviable trajectory for most of 2020", notes analyst Xiao Chun Xu, of the rating agency Moody's.

Although questionable, the official growth figure is still under scrutiny, given China's weight in the global economy.

And the country appears as a barometer of the hoped-for recovery in global growth.

For its part, Chinese industrial production reached its highest growth rate of 2020 in December, with an increase of 7.3% over one year.

Retail sales, the main indicator of consumption, on the other hand slowed, with growth of only 4.6% over one year in December, against 5% the previous month.

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