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BIG STORY JANUARY 06, 2023 | The Indian Eye 10

YEARENDER 2022

Falling GDP growth and

failed Zero Covid: How China fell

from grace in a tough year

For the first time since 1989, China will miss its annual gross domestic

product (GDP) growth target.

OUR BUREAU
New Delhi/Washington, DC
hina had been praised world-
wide for lifting its 60 per cent
Cof population out of poverty,
according to reports. However, 2022
marks Beijing’s diminishing stature
on the world platform amid its ‘Zero
Covid’ policy, human rights violations
and falling GDP growth.
Among the world’s 15 most pop-
ulous developing countries, China
has seen the greatest drop in poverty
rates. China’s transformation from
an agrarian society into the world’s
second-largest economy has lifted
hundreds of millions of people out of
extreme poverty. China was respon-
sible for just over 60 per cent of this
decrease. Decades of rapid economic
growth in China helped to lift 748.5
million people out of extreme pover-
ty, dropping the country’s poverty rate
from 66.3 per cent to just 0.3 per cent, Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at G20 dinner in Bali (ANI)
according to reports.
However, as Chinese leader was delivered to the opening of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Also, the International Mone-
Xi Jinping kicks off his third term annual session of the National Peo- no no explanation was given for why tary Fund forecasted growth of 3.2
as general secretary of the Chi- ple’s Congress (NPC), the country’s the data was not released as planned. per cent in China’s economy for 2022.
nese Communist Party (CCP), top legislature, on Saturday morning, Apart from the overall GDP number, The reasons for why China’s growth
Beijing is reeling under econom- Global Times reported. the releases were supposed to include rate has slumped are well under-
ic stress due to the real estate cri- China’s GDP growth target of the details of monthly industrial out- stood. The major one is Xi’s harsh
sis and zero-Covid policy, deeply 5.5 per cent for 2022 was the lowest put, energy production, fixed asset ‘Zero Covid’ policy, which has seen
affecting its manufacturing units. since 1991. Another closely-watched investment, property investment and near-continuous rolling lockdowns
China’s gross domestic product data was China’s deficit-to-GDP ra- sales, retail sales and housing prices, of China’s major cities and industrial
(GDP) is expected to grow at 5.5 per tio, which was around 2.8 per cent for reported The Sydney Morning Her- hubs. In the second quarter it was a
cent in 2022, the lowest in more than 2022, according to the Government ald (SMH). protracted lockdown of Shanghai that
30 years. China’s GDP growth tar- Work Report. The obvious conclusion is that was a major factor in the economy’s
get for 2022 is sharply lower than 8.1 Moreover, China deferred the the numbers might have embarrassed stagnation, reported SMH.
per cent expansion in the economy scheduled release of its third-quarter Xi had they been released even as the The property crisis, triggered by
achieved in 2021. economic data sparking immediate Congress was being asked to approve Beijing’s imposition of hard limits to
The annual official growth target speculation of a slowdown in its GDP his third term, rubber-stamping an property developers’ leverage, has
was revealed by Premier Li Keqiang growth rate. unprecedented extension of his peri- caused an implosion of the develop-
in the Government Work Report that During the 20th Congress of the od as party leader. Continued at next page... >>

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