Foreign Affairs

China Claims Economy Grew Almost 5% In The Third Quarter of 2020 Despite Pandemic

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China claims its economy grew nearly 5% in the third quarter of 2020, while other countries’ economies continued to contract amid the coronavirus pandemic.

China saw its economy – the second-largest in the world – grow 4.9% from July to September, up from 3.2% the previous quarter. Consumer retail spending in the country was the highest since pre-pandemic levels, and factory output, driven by foreign demand for masks and other personal protective equipment, rose as well, according to the Associated Press.

Most Asian countries, many of which trade with China more than any other country, saw their markets rise in reaction the news, AP reported.

The country began reopening in March following a near-complete lockdown early in 2020. Reports of the coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

China’s economy has been recovering since 2020’s first quarter, when the communist country reported its economy contracting by 6.8%, according to AP. Its ability to tamper the spread of the virus was due to the country’s imposing of severely strict lockdown measures, including cutting off access to multiple cities with populations totaling approximately 60 million people.

The International Monetary Fund said that they expect China’s economy to grow by 1.9% this year, while they expect the U.S. economy to shrink by 4.3%. Expectations are even grimmer in other countries like Japan, Germany and France, where economies are expected to contract by 5.3%, 6% and 9.8%, respectively.

China has had approximately 90,000 coronavirus cases, over 4,700 of which have been fatal, according to a Johns Hopkins University database.