BEIJING (AP) — China’s economic growth picked up in the latest quarter but still was among the weakest in decades.
The world’s second-largest economy grew by 3.9% over a year earlier in the three months ending in September, up from the previous quarter’s 0.4%, official data showed Monday.
The announcement was planned for last week but postponed while the ruling Communist Party met to award President Xi Jinping a new term as leader.
Chinese stock markets closed lower Monday despite the unexpectedly strong data, suggesting investors still are uneasy about the country’s growth prospects.
The country’s market benchmark, the Shanghai Composite Index, lost more than 2%. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong plunged by an unusually wide daily margin of 6.4%. Tokyo and other Asian markets gained.
The International Monetary Fund and private sector forecasters say the economy will expand by as little as 3% this year. That would be the second weakest since the 1980s after 2020, when growth plunged to 2.4% at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Investors and the public watched the congress for initiatives to stimulate the economy or reduce the impact of “Zero COVID” controls that shut down cities and disrupt business, but none were announced.
The latest slide in growth that began in mid-2021 hurts China’s trading partners by depressing demand for imported oil, food and consumer goods.