Beijing’s economy suffered under years of pandemic restrictions as the government continued to follow the Zero-Covid strategy

With Covid-19 restrictions finally lifted at the end of last year, China’s economy is showing strong signs of recovery in the early stages of 2023.

Gross Domestic Product grew 4.5 per cent for the first three months of this year, compared with the same period in 2022.

That figure was half a percentage higher than what analysts had predicted before the data was released.

China’s economy suffered under years of pandemic restrictions as the government continued to follow the Zero-Covid strategy.

But with Beijing finally removing all pandemic control measures – life has slowly returned to normal in China, giving the country a much needed economic boost.

One area which has seen a huge boost is retail sales, which rose 5.8 per cent year on year in the first quarter of this year.

Output from factories also grew 3.9 per cent from a year ago – although that figure was slightly lower than experts had predicted.

Despite the strong GDP data overall, concerns still remain about China’s economy.

Youth unemployment continues to rise, with the jobless rate for 16-24 year-olds up to 19.6 per cent in March – a third-straight monthly increase.

There were also some more troubling signs for the property sector in China with Investment in property dropping 5.8 per cent in the first quarter.