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China’s economy grew 4.7 per cent year on year in the second quarter, official data showed on Monday, missing forecasts and marking a slower rate of expansion compared with the previous three months.
Gross domestic product, which added 5.3 per cent in the first quarter on the year before, had been expected to rise 5.1 per cent based on economists polled by Reuters.
The world’s second-largest economy has grappled with weak consumer demand and a prolonged property slowdown, prompting greater intervention from policymakers in recent months.
Industrial production added 5.3 per cent in June, while retail sales in the same month rose just 2 per cent, missing expectations by a wide margin.
New home prices in China fell 4.5 per cent year on year last month, the fastest pace of decline in nine years, according to Reuters calculations, while new construction starts and property investment were down 23.7 per cent and 10.1 per cent, respectively, in the first half of the year.
The data release came as the Chinese Communist party’s Central Committee on Monday launched its third plenum, a four-day meeting in which the country’s leadership is expected to set the direction of economic policy. The last such event was held in 2018.
Beijing has set a full-year economic growth target of about 5 per cent.
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