Growth in the April to June quarter was always expected to be lower than the steep growth that China reported in the first three months of the year. Barclays Bank said in a research note that China seems to have settled into a new annual growth range of 5 to 5.5 percent. While considerably better than the growth in most Western countries, it is slower than the 6 to 6.5 percent growth China saw before the pandemic. “At home, the economic recovery is unbalanced,” said Liu Aihua, the spokeswoman of China’s National Bureau of Statistics. “The cost of materials has been rising, but the price we offer to customers can barely increase,” she said.

Source: International New York Times July 15, 2021 02:39 UTC