Oct 18, 2021 - Economy

China's economic growth slows

Axios

A worker assembles heavy truck engines at sinotruk Hangzhou Engine Company's production workshop in Xiaoshan Robot Town in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province, Oct. 18, 2021. — A worker assembles heavy truck engines in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang Province on Monday. Photo: Long We/Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

China's economy grew 4.9% in the third quarter of 2021 compared with a year earlier, the country's National Bureau of Statistics announced Monday.

Why it matters: The gross domestic product growth in the July-September period in the world’s second-largest economy marked the "weakest pace since the third quarter of 2020 and slowing from 7.9% in the second quarter," Reuters notes.

"September industrial output rose 3.1% from a year earlier, missing expectations, down from August's 5.3%, and marking the slowest growth since March 2020, during the first wave of the pandemic," Reuters added.

Driving the news: Contributing factors include computer chip shortages, power cuts at steel mills and a construction slowdown during the pandemic, as signs of stress pile up in China’s real estate development sector, per the New York Times.

"Growth is under pressure from government controls aimed at making the energy-hungry economy more efficient and at reducing reliance on debt that Chinese leaders worry is dangerously high and could cause financial problems," according to AP.

What they're saying: National Bureau of Statistics spokesperson Fu Linghui warned "the current international environment uncertainties are mounting, and the domestic economic recovery is still unstable and uneven," per an NYT translation.

Flashback: China ended 2020 as the only major country to see its economy grow rather than shrink during the pandemic.

Chinese government officials in March set the country's annual economic growth target at over 6%.

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China's economic growth slows

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