(Yicai) Jan. 17 -- Key economic gauges show a positive trend in China’s economy and the economy is expected to continue its upward direction this year, experts said.

Macroeconomic data in the fourth quarter and December last year show that the Chinese economy underwent more positive, comprehensive and multidimensional changes, Pang Ming, chief economist of US real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle's China arm, told Yicai.

China’s gross domestic product expanded 5.2 percent in 2023 from the previous year, meeting the target of around 5 percent growth set at the beginning of the year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics today.

Other major gauges also showed strong growth. The value added of industries climbed 6.8 percent in December from a year ago, a widening of 0.2 percentage point from November’s growth. Fixed asset investment advanced 3 percent, investment in manufacturing jumped 6.5 percent, gaining for the second straight month, and investment in infrastructure surged 5.9 percent. This was 0.1 percentage point higher than the period from January to November and was the first increase last year.

China’s industrial transition and upgrade is speeding up, the driving force for its economic development is gathering pace, and the high-quality development of the economy is proceeding steadily thanks to favorable factors such as stabler and stronger industrial output, consumption becoming a major driving force for growth and efforts to accelerate investment taking effect, Pang said.

Consumption is on the rebound. The contribution of consumer spending to economic growth was 82.5 percent last year, more than double what it was last year.

The total retail sales of consumer goods jumped 7.2 percent last year from the previous year. And in December it surged 7.4 percent year on year and climbed 0.42 percent from November.

This is a slowdown from November’s 10.7 percent year-on-year growth largely due to the low base number caused by a flare-up of Covid-19 a year earlier, said Liu Xiangdong, chief analyst at Eastern Spring Capital.

The fast growth in food and beverages, clothing, footwear and headwear, as well as knitwear and textile all helped spur consumption last month, Liu said.

As the People’s Bank of China reintroduces pledged supplementary lending, CNY1 trillion (USD139.7 billion) of new bonds have been gradually invested in projects, boosting the growth of infrastructure investment at the end of last year, said Wang Qing, chief macro analyst with Golden Credit Rating International.

Editor: Kim Taylor