China’s economy grew 5.2% in 2023 to beat official target

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China’s gross domestic product grew 5.2 per cent in 2023 while its population dropped for the second year in a row as the world’s second-largest economy grappled with a property slowdown and deflationary and demographic pressures.

The GDP figure was equal to a forecast of 5.2 per cent from an analyst poll by Reuters and exceeded the government’s official target of around 5 per cent. It also outpaced growth of just 3 per cent in 2022, when the economy was hit by Beijing’s draconian zero-Covid restrictions.

But analysts said the data release on Wednesday highlighted the challenge for President Xi Jinping, who began an unprecedented third five-year term in power last year, in engineering a stronger economic recovery in 2024.

The National Bureau of Statistics said investment in property development fell 9.6 per cent last year compared with a year earlier, while new home prices in December declined 0.4 per cent on the previous month, the sharpest fall since February 2015.

Chinese equities lost ground following the data release. The Hang Seng China Enterprises index in Hong Kong declined as much 3.1 per cent to be down about 10 per cent this month, while the Hang Seng Mainland Properties index fell 4.5 per cent. The CSI 300 index of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed stocks shed 1 per cent.

China’s population fell by 2mn people to 1.4bn, statistics showed on Wednesday, as the 11mn deaths recorded outstripped 9mn births. The country’s population declined for the first time in 60 years in 2022, falling by 850,000, a trend that demographers forecast will continue as China rapidly ages.

“The world is experiencing an unparalleled change marked by the rapid decline of China’s population,” said Yi Fuxian, an expert…