SOURCE / ECONOMY
China’s economic growth beats expectations of many professional organizations: FM
Published: Jan 19, 2021 08:03 PM

Hua Chunying File photo:CGTN





Major international media outlets including Reuters and the Associated Press showed "concern" about Chinese economy's swift recovery and strong growth, despite the worsening spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economy's fall into its worst recession since World War II, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Tuesday.

China is likely to be the only major economy that achieved growth last year with its growth beating expectations of many professional agencies, Hua told a regular press conference. 

Her comments were in response to a question about a few media outlets noting that the economy's 2020 growth rate was "at its lowest" in over four decades. 

The economy grew 2.3 percent for the whole year of 2020 on the back of an expansion of 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter, official data showed on Monday.

China took the lead in virus containment, work and production resumption, as well as a return to economic expansion from a sudden contraction, Hua said.

The Chinese economy experienced a magnificent V-shaped comeback, as seen in construction sites that were in full swing, in lively streets and lanes, and through incessant steams of traffic lights, she went on to say.

The country's GDP exceeded 100 trillion yuan ($15.5 trillion) for the first time last year and its share of the world economy rose to about over 17 percent from 16.3 percent in 2019. 

In addition, the country's full-year grain production set a new record, industrial production continued to power ahead, and the push for consumption upgrading is accelerating, among a raft of other indicators of China becoming a pacemaker for the global economy in both quantity and quality terms, according to Hua.

More importantly, China has not only contributed economic growth, but provided various urgently needed supplies to the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and played an active part in safeguarding the stability of global industry and supply chains, Hua stressed. 

China's contribution to global economic growth will reach one-third in 2021, according to estimates by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in December. 

The country will continue to open its doors wider to the world, and it's believed the sustainable development of the economy will create more opportunities for the world to share, Hua said, noting that economic globalization is an irreversible trend and opening-up and cooperation still prevails, despite the virus' fallout on the world economy, the continued rise of unilateralism and protectionism, and the continued shock throughout global supply chains. 

So long as each country joins hands with others to safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and push for a more equitable and reasonable global economic governance system, the world economy will certainly be on the path to revival, said the spokeswoman, vowing that China will continue to act as a world peace builder, a contributor to global development, and a guardian of the international order.

  

Global Times