China has long had an extremely restrictive corona policy.
(Photo: dpa)
Beijing Against the background of the chaotic corona situation in China, the country’s economy grew by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter, according to official figures. This was announced by the statistics office in Beijing on Tuesday.
In 2022 as a whole, the second largest economy grew by 3 percent, which means that the growth target of around 5.5 percent set by the government was missed. Economists at the World Bank had recently expected growth of 2.7 percent for the year as a whole.
The Chinese economy was heavily burdened in the past year by the strict zero-corona policy and the associated lockdowns. On December 7, the leadership in Beijing made an abrupt about-face and abolished most of the corona measures after a good three years. Since then, however, the virus has been spreading rapidly in the country, which is now also having a negative impact on economic activity.