In 2022, China's gross domestic product increased by 3% to about $18 trillion.

Such preliminary data on Tuesday, January 17, published the State Statistical Bureau of China.

In general, over the past 12 months, the growth of the Chinese economy has slowed down by 2.7 times and turned out to be slightly worse than forecasts.

So, back in 2021, the GDP of the Asian republic grew by 8.1%.

At the same time, the country's authorities assumed that in 2022 the value would be 5.5%, while experts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the figure at 3.2%.

One of the main reasons for the observed slowdown in China was the general deterioration of the situation in the global economy.

Mark Goykhman, chief analyst at TeleTrade, shared this opinion in a conversation with RT.

“The reduction in growth rates last year was a landmark trend for many large countries.

The United States, the eurozone, and the UK have faced this.

The consequences of the pandemic were partly manifested in the form of disruption of supply chains, limited production and consumer demand.

To this was added a sharp rise in prices for energy, food and other goods, ”the expert explained.

In addition, in 2022, the Chinese economy was negatively affected by a new wave of coronavirus in the country and the zero tolerance policy towards COVID-19 pursued by the Chinese leadership.

Natalya Milchakova, a leading analyst at Freedom Finance Global, spoke about this in an interview with RT.

“In 2021, due to mass vaccination, the pandemic in China began to decline, but for almost the entire 2022, outbreaks of coronavirus were again observed in many large cities in China.

The local authorities reacted to this by introducing lockdowns, which led to the shutdown of a number of industries, limiting the work of retail and service enterprises, as well as a drop in demand for raw materials and materials, ”the RT interlocutor explained.

However, as Milchakova noted, at the moment China has begun to gradually ease quarantine restrictions and decided to open its borders to tourists for the first time in three years.

This, according to the expert, should lead to an acceleration of the Chinese economy in 2023.

A similar point of view is shared by Mark Goykhman.

“Now foreign investments are returning to the economy.

Resuming work and frozen by quarantine production.

In the event that the pandemic declines radically, the economy will take its renaissance very positively.

Of course, it is still difficult to make specific assumptions about growth rates.

They will depend not only on the epidemic circumstances, but also largely on the situation in the world economy as a whole,” Goykhman believes.

However, according to the forecast of the World Bank, from January to December of this year, the volume of Chinese GDP may increase by 4.3%.

IMF experts estimate a possible growth rate of 4.4%.

At the same time, Natalya Milchakova does not rule out that the economy of the Asian republic will add more than 4.6%.

contagious growth

According to Mark Goykhman, with such a favorable development of events, the accelerated growth of the Chinese economy will have a positive effect on Russia as well.

First of all, according to the expert, there will be an increase in trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

In particular, due to the resumption of industry and the lifting of quarantine restrictions in China, demand for oil, gas and other energy resources may increase.

In this case, Moscow can further increase the export of its raw materials to the Asian republic and thereby further minimize the effect of Western sanctions.

So, for example, the expected decline in hydrocarbon production in Russia will not be so serious, and the mining and transport industries will receive additional support.

“An economic recovery would also help expand investment opportunities from China to the Russian Federation, as well as increase the supply of Chinese consumer and industrial products to Russia.

At the same time, the scale of mutual tourism can increase,” Goykhman added.

  • RIA News

  • © Alexander Demyanchuk

It is curious that in 2022, even against the backdrop of an economic slowdown in China and a decline in Russia's GDP, trade between the two countries grew by almost a third and for the first time exceeded $190 billion. This is evidenced by the materials of the General Customs Administration of the PRC.

Moscow, against the background of Western sanctions, has significantly increased the supply of energy resources, metals and timber to the Asian republic.

In turn, Beijing actively sent electronics, equipment, cars and light industry goods to the Russian Federation, including under the program of parallel imports.

In addition, Chinese business began to occupy free niches in the Russian market after the departure of a number of Western competitors.

Earlier, the authorities of the two countries agreed to increase the volume of bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2024.

At the same time, in the future, the figure may rise even higher and reach $ 250 billion, the Kremlin does not exclude.

“The growth rate is very high.

This causes satisfaction both in Moscow and in Beijing.

Coverage is growing… China is our great ally and trade and economic partner.

We will develop this cooperation.

The mentioned $250 billion horizon is absolutely realistic.

We hope that in the near future it will be achieved and exaggerated,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

  • RIA News

  • © Mikhail Voskresensky

In 2022, the steady growth of partnership with China partly helped mitigate the negative impact of Western restrictions on Russia, experts emphasize.

As a result, the decline in the Russian economy turned out to be several times smaller than many international analysts initially predicted.

Thus, the volume of Russian GDP decreased by less than 3%, although in the spring of 2022 a number of organizations and experts estimated a possible decline by the end of the year at 10% or more.

According to experts of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, in 2023 the decline will slow down to 0.8%.

Meanwhile, Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, in an interview with RT, did not rule out that the economy could return to growth at all.

“And this is not only my opinion, but also of many experts.

Let the increase be small - about 1.5%, but this is still a movement forward, ”concluded the deputy.