China says economy grew 5.2% in 2023

BEIJING  —China’s economy last year suffered one of its worst annual performances in more than three decades, official figures showed Wednesday, as it battled a crippling property crisis, sluggish consumption and global turmoil.

Gross domestic product expanded 5.2 percent in the fourth quarter to hit 126 trillion yuan ($17.6 trillion), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported.

Official GDP figures remain a key source of insight into the health of the world’s second-largest economy, despite being eminently political.

Wednesday’s reading is an improvement on the 3 percent seen in 2022, a year that saw business activity hammered by tight health curbs designed to contain the virus.

But excluding the pandemic years, it marks the weakest performance since 1990.

READ: China’s Q4 GDP to show patchy economic recovery, many challenges ahead

After lifting Covid measures, Beijing set itself a growth target of “around 5 percent” for 2023.

Officials are due to release their target for this year in March.

After the lifting of zero-Covid measures at the end of 2022, the economy enjoyed a quick rebound but that quickly ran out of steam within months as a lack of confidence among households and businesses battered consumption.

An intractable real estate crisis, record youth unemployment and a global slowdown are also gumming the gears of the Chinese growth engine.

READ: China’s property sales extend declines, weighing on outlook

The country’s exports — historically a key growth lever — fell last year for the first time since 2016, according to figures published by the customs agency on Friday.

Geopolitical tensions with the United States and efforts by some Western nations to reduce dependence on China or diversify their supply chains have also hit growth.