China Is the Only Major Economy to Report Economic Growth for 2020

By Jonathan Cheng

BEIJING--China's economy expanded by 2.3% in 2020, roaring back from a historic contraction in the early months of the year to become the only major world economy to grow in what was a pandemic-ravaged year.

China's ability to grow, even as the world struggled to control a raging pandemic that has killed more than two million people, underscores the country's success in largely taming the coronavirus within its borders and further cements its place as the dominant economy in Asia.

China's economy, the world's second largest, finished the year on a high note. Gross domestic product rose 6.5% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

The results topped expectations. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal expected growth of 6% in the fourth quarter and an expansion of 2.2% for the full year.

By comparison, China's GDP rose by 3.2% and 4.9% in the second and third quarters of the year, respectively, after suffering a historic 6.8% contraction in the first.

By logging 6.5% growth in the final quarter, China's economy has reclaimed the growth trajectory that it had been on before the coronavirus first began to spread across the city of Wuhan around a year ago.

In the last three months of 2019, the last full quarter before the coronavirus began disrupting the global economy, China's GDP rose 6% from a year earlier, contributing to a 6.1% expansion for the full year.

Grace Zhu and Bingyan Wang contributed to this article.

Write to Jonathan Cheng at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-17-21 2131ET