China’s Economy to Expand 8% Next Year, Ex-Deputy Head of NBS Says
Liao Shumin
DATE:  Nov 26 2020
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
China’s Economy to Expand 8% Next Year, Ex-Deputy Head of NBS Says China’s Economy to Expand 8% Next Year, Ex-Deputy Head of NBS Says

(Yicai Global) Nov. 26 -- China’s economic growth is expected to reach 8 percent next year because of the relatively low base following this year’s Covid-19 pandemic, according to a former deputy head of the National Bureau of Statistics.

“When the impact of external factors weakens and they are removed, China’s economy will quickly return to its original position,” the Paper quoted He Keng as saying at the 2020 Sohu Finance Annual Conference in Beijing.

After more than a decade of rapid growth, China’s economic expansion has slowed in recent years. It grew 6.1 percent last year. The coronavirus outbreak hit hard in the first three months of this year, but the economy picked up as the contagion was brought under control.

He noted that that the economy fell off a cliff in the first quarter, shrinking by 6.8 percent, but growth quickly returned to 3.2 percent in the second quarter and accelerated to 4.9 percent in the third.

“I expect growth of about 6 percent in the fourth quarter, which is a return to last year’s growth level,” He said.

“We should calmly and properly judge the pandemic’s impact on China’s economy,” he said, adding that he disagrees with the conclusion reached by many economists that Covid-19’s impact is greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s.

“The disease’s influences are external to the economy and the reasons for the 1930s Great Depression were internal issues of the economy, which cannot be simply regarded as equivalent,” He said.

Editor: Peter Thomas

Follow Yicai Global on
Keywords:   Economy Growth