China economy 2021: latest economic data about world’s second-largest economy
China’s economic data paints a comprehensive picture of the state of the world’s second-largest economy.
This includes figures pertaining to gross domestic product (GDP), the consumer price index (CPI), the producer price index (PPI), industrial production and profits, purchasing managers’ indices (PMI), retail sales, foreign exchanges reserves, imports and exports, as well as the trade balance.
However, the accuracy of official Chinese economic data has been called into question, given the lack of transparency in how it is generated.
China’s economy grew by 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020, while the overall growth rate for 2020 was 2.3 percent.
China’s gross domestic product (GDP) is the value of all goods and services produced within the country during a specific period of time.
In the first quarter of 2020, China’s economy shrank by 6.8 percent after the coronavirus shut down large swathes of the country. It recovered and ended the coronavirus-ravaged year with a strong growth surge and a GDP growth rate of 2.3 percent in 2020.
China’s government has set an economic growth target of “above 6 percent” for 2021.
| China: GDP In Statistics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Details | Last | Previous | Unit |
| GDP Growth Rate | 2.6 | 3 | percent |
| GDP Annual Growth Rate | 6.5 | 4.9 | percent |
| GDP | 14342.9 | 13894.82 | USD Billion |
| Gross National Product | 1009151 | 988528.9 | CNY HML |
| Gross Fixed Capital Formation | 422018.8 | 380771.8 | CNY HML |
| GDP per capita | 8254.3 | 7807 | USD |
| GDP per capita PPP | 16116.7 | 15243.2 | USD |
| GDP From Agriculture | 77754 | 48123 | CNY HML |
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Second covid-19 wave poses downside risk to India’s economy, says Gita Gopinath
International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath has said its 2021 GDP numbers for India were locked on March 5, around the same time the country started seeing an upsurge in Covid-19 cases and that there could be a downward risk if the country goes for a nationwide lockdown.
Gopinath said the IMF had made a smaller upgrade in its GDP projection from 11.5 percent earlier to 12.5 percent for 2021. The IMF forecast was based on improvement in economic activity, normalisation, and recovery in high-frequency indicators, she said.
The IMF this week had raised its growth forecast for the Indian economy by 100 basis points to 12.5 percent for the fiscal year 2021-22. The international monetary body expects India’s GDP to grow 12.5 percent in FY22, the highest among emerging and advanced economies. GDP growth for FY23 is pegged at 6.9 percent.
Gopinath said about 0.2 percent of the upward GDP forecast was added after February’s Budget 2021, which announced major infrastructural investment plans for the current financial year.
Besides, she said, the latest GDP projections come on the back of about 8 percent contraction in the Indian economy in the previous fiscal year.
“And we locked in these numbers around March 5 when we started seeing the second Covid-19 wave in India. We assumed that there would be localised lockdowns just because until you get widespread vaccination, things will not get back to perfectly normal. If, on the other hand, there was a widespread nationwide lockdown, then that would be a downside risk to our forecast,” she said.
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Indonesia warns over delays for 100 million Astrazeneca jabs
Indonesia warned Thursday it faced delays receiving over 100 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, as export restrictions in India and company supply holdups threaten one of the world’s biggest jab rollouts.
The Southeast Asian nation’s health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin slammed the slowdown and said the government was trying to find a solution.
“We have about 100 million vaccine doses with an uncertain arrival schedule,” he told parliament.
“This is not something we can accept. We immediately communicated with AstraZeneca.”
The world’s fourth-biggest nation is one of the hardest hit in Asia, with more than 1.5 million virus cases and over 42,000 deaths.
Jakarta has announced an ambitious plan to jab more than 181 million of its nearly 270 million people within a year, relying heavily on China’s Sinovac jab and AstraZeneca’s treatment.
Indonesia had been on track to receive some 54 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine through the Covax global vaccine sharing programme.
It is also expecting another 50 million doses in direct deals with the UK-based pharma giant and state-owned Biofarma.
But Indonesia has received just one million AstraZeneca doses so far with another 10 million that were set for delivery in March and April delayed due to India restricting vaccine exports, Sadikin said.
Many countries are relying on the Serum Institute of India for supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but the government put the brakes on allowing it to export the shots to battle a surge in cases at home.
AstraZeneca has also told Indonesia that previous plans to ship 50 million doses to the country this year would be delayed, with 20 million now set to arrive in 2021 and another 30 million next year, the health minister said.
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Germany to talk to Russia about buying Sputnik jabs
German officials will talk to Russia about purchasing doses of its Sputnik V virus vaccine if it gets approval from European regulators, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday.
Spahn told public broadcaster WDR that Germany was prepared to go it alone without the European Union if it meant the country could speed up its inoculation campaign.
“The EU Commission said yesterday that it will not sign contracts (for Sputnik) like for other manufacturers — such as BioNTech, for example — so I said… we will hold bilateral talks with Russia,” Spahn said.
The minister did not indicate when the talks would take place but said they would initially cover “when supplies could arrive”.
“To really make a difference in our current situation, the delivery would have to come in the next two to four, five months — otherwise we’ll have more than enough vaccines,” Spahn said.
He said Germany was seeking a “binding commitment on which amounts specifically could reach Germany after regulatory approval and when”.
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Bangladesh records highest single-day covid-19 deaths, infections
Bangladesh registered the highest COVID-19 deaths and infections on Tuesday with 66 more people succumbing to coronavirus, taking the nation-wide tally to 6,51,652, according to the health authorities.
Since March 8 last year, Bangladesh has recorded 9,384 COVID-19 deaths and 651,652 infection cases.
“The tally of infections has surged to 6,51,652 as 7,213 new cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours . . . 66 people died of COVID-19 during the period, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said.
The data showed 54 out of the 66 died in Dhaka division alone and 39 of them were men while 27 were women, it said.
A total of 21.02 percent of the 34,311 samples collected in the past one day were tested positive while the lowest infection rate was 2.30 percent, recorded on February 8 this year, it added.
A health ministry spokesman said the figures were highest in terms of both fatality and infection in a single day since the COVID-19 outbreak on March 8 last year, asserting the hospitals across the country have exhausted their capacity.
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Shark fishing for profit could soon be legal in the Maldives
Sharks have always been a valuable tourist attraction in the small island nation, which is one of the top destinations for diving with these marine creatures. But shark fishing was prohibited in 2010 following a reported decline in populations. This ban was put in place to protect the species from dying out.
But in a recent government u-turn, Maldives Minister of Fisheries Zaha Waheed has said discussions are taking place to decide whether legalising shark fishing would provide economic benefits. There have also been concerns around overpopulation of sharks in Maldivian waters and recent shark attacks.
Commercial shark fishing “presents a profitable revenue-generation strategy for the state,” stated Waheed.