Chinese FM spokesperson Mao Ning

When asked to comment on external factors such as tariffs on China's economy and any concerns about a shock to China's economy, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said on Wednesday that she noticed that international media outlets used words like "beating expectations" and "resilient" to evaluate the performance of the Chinese economy in April.

Mao made the remarks at regular press briefing in response to a media question, which noted that the UN recently released a report saying that global economic growth is expected to slow to 2.4 percent in 2025 due to the impact of "tariff wars" and other factors, which is 0.4 percentage points lower than the forecast in January. The question also involved China's national economic indicators in April.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total value-added of industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 6.1 percent year-on-year in April, beating market expectations of 5.5-percent growth. Retail sales grew 5.1 percent year-on-year to 3.72 trillion yuan ($515.29 billion), with the growth rate up by 0.24 percentage points month-on-month. 

Mao also noted that China's foreign trade maintained steady growth in the face of high tariff barriers. The total import and export of goods in the first four months increased by 2.4 percent year-on-year, with exports up by 7.5 percent, showing excellent international competitiveness.

At the same time, China's continuous opening-up has offered foreign enterprises more room for development in the country with more stable expectations. "All of these fully demonstrate that China is fully capable of, has the conditions for and has the confidence to cope with all kinds of risks and challenges," Mao said.

China's GDP grew by 5.4 percent in the first quarter of 2025, higher than broad market expectations as the world's second-largest economy got off to a very strong start and laid a solid foundation for the economy to achieve its goal of growing around 5 percent for the whole year, despite escalating US tariff pressures, according to official data. 

Global Times