China’s economy lost momentum in the second quarter, with gross domestic product expanding 0.8 per cent against the previous three months as falling exports, weak retail sales and a moribund property sector weighed on growth.
The difficulties facing the world’s second-largest economy will put further pressure on global growth and add to calls for Beijing to step up stimulus measures more than six months after it abandoned tough Covid-19 controls.
The second-quarter growth rate was stronger than the 0.5 per cent forecast in a Reuters analysts’ poll but weaker than the 2.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter expansion in the January-March period.