Chinese Economy Grows More Than 18% in First Quarter

By Jonathan Cheng 

BEIJING--China's economy surged 18.3% in the first quarter from a year earlier, a record rate of growth that was flattered by the coronavirus-induced trough at the start of 2020, but that also reflects continued momentum in the world's second-largest economy.

The rate of gross domestic product growth in the first three months of 2021 was sharply higher than the 6.5% year-over-year growth recorded in the final quarter of 2020, though it fell short of the 19.2% growth expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Analysts had anticipated GDP growth in the first three months of the year to jump sharply when compared with the year-earlier period, when the Chinese economy suffered a historic 6.8% contraction as the coronavirus' initial emergence forced Beijing to shut down large swaths of the country.

The year-over-year GDP growth rate will almost certainly trend lower in coming quarters as the Chinese economy is measured against higher levels from year-earlier period. China's economy began its recovery in the second quarter of 2020 and recorded higher year-over-year growth figures through the remaining quarters of the year.

When compared with the last three months of 2020, the Chinese economy expanded 0.6% in the first quarter of 2021, slowing from a 2.6% quarter-on-quarter GDP increase in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to data released Friday by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The 18.3% year-over-year growth rate for the first quarter is the highest since China began reporting quarterly GDP in 1992, surpassing the 15.3% rate in the first quarter of 1993.

Grace Zhu and Bingyan Wang contributed to this article.

Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 15, 2021 22:27 ET (02:27 GMT)

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