BEIJING (Xinhua)
China’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 12.7 per cent year on year in the first half of 2021 as recovery continues, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Thursday (July 29).

The figure puts average H1 growth for the past two years at 5.3 per cent, 0.3 percentage points faster than the two-year average of Q1 growth from the 2019 level, according to the NBS.

In the second quarter, the country’s GDP grew 7.9 per cent year on year, the data showed.

On a quarterly basis, the economy expanded 1.3 per cent in Q2.

URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STOOD AT 5% IN JUNE

Other major economic indicators showed continued improvements across the board, with industrial output rising 15.9 per cent and retail sales up 23 per cent year on year in the first half.

The country’s surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at five per cent in June, 0.7 percentage points lower than the same period last year. A total of 6.98 million new urban jobs, or 63.5 per cent of the annual target, were created in the first half.

In the six-month period, China’s per capita disposable income increased 12.6 per cent year on year in nominal terms to 17,642 yuan (about US$2,731), basically keeping pace with the GDP increase.

In the first quarter of 2021, the Chinese economy grew 18.3 per cent year on year as strong domestic and foreign demands powered recovery from a low base in early 2020 when COVID-19 stalled the world’s second-largest economy.

“The national economy has, in general, sustained a steady recovery in the first half,” said Liu Aihua, a spokesperson with the NBS.

Liu, however, cautioned of uncertainties stemming from the global spread of the pandemic and the unbalanced recovery domestically.

CHINA AIMS TO CREATE 11 MILLION NEW URBAN JOBS

But considering the supply-demand cycle, market confidence and the increasingly strong domestic demand, China’s economy is expected to maintain the recovery trend in the second half of 2021, Liu added.

China has aimed for an economic expansion of over six per cent in 2021. It also aims to create more than 11 million new urban jobs and expand domestic demand and effective investment, which are expected to put the economy firmly back to pre-pandemic vibrancy.

The World Bank, in a report last month, forecast that China’s economic growth will be at 8.5 per cent in 2021.

China’s recovery has broadened as its economic activities have continued to normalise under the country’s effective containment of COVID-19, the report noted.