China's economy grew by 3.2 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of the
year, versus a 6.8 percent contraction in the first quarter, driven by a number
of improving economic indicators, the National Bureau of Statistics said on
Thursday.
In the first half of the year, the country's GDP contracted by
1.6 percent from a year earlier to 45.66 trillion yuan ($6.53 trillion), the NBS
said.
The Chinese economy has steadily recovered as epidemic containment
bore fruit, with people’s basic livelihood safeguarded and market expectation
brightening, the bureau said in a statement.
Industrial output contracted
by 1.3 percent year-on-year over the first half of the year, narrowing by 7.1
percentage points from the first quarter, according to the NBS.
The
production index measuring the services sector dropped by 6.1 percent
year-on-year in the first six months, improving by 5.6 percentage points from
the first quarter.
Retail sales fell by 11.4 percent over the same
period, recovering from the plunge of 19 percent in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, the country registered a 3.1 percent contraction in
fixed-asset investment during the January-June period, narrowing by 3.2
percentage points from the first five months and 13 percentage points from the
first three months.
Surveyed urban unemployment rate nationwide was 5.7
percent in June, versus 5.9 percent in May, the bureau said.