China’s economic growth fell to its second-lowest level in at least four decades last year under pressure from anti-virus controls and a real estate slump, but activity is reviving after restrictions that kept millions of people at home and sparked protests were lifted.
The world’s No. 2 economy grew by 3 per cent in 2022, less than half of the previous year’s 8.1 per cent, official data showed Tuesday. That was the second-lowest annual rate since at least the 1970s after 2020, when growth fell to 2.4 per cent at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Consumer and business activity are reviving after the ruling Communist Party’s severe “zero Covid” controls ended abruptly December. But wary consumers are returning only gradually to shopping malls and restaurants as China copes with a surge in infections that has flooded hospitals The government says the peak of that wave appears to have…
