The economy of China was up by 6.8 percent during its first quarter for the year 2018, according to the country’s statistics bureau.
This growth surpassed a consensus forecast of 6.7 percent year over year growth for this specific quarter. This quarter also marked the third straight quarter of 6.8 percent expansion for the second largest economy in the world.
As stated by Barclays’ chief Asia Pacific economist David Fernandez, the headline figure may suggest a robust start to the year for China. However, there might be a roll down in moving forward.
Fernandez also added that real estate investment is forecast to slow down as the government is planning to restrict excessive speculation within the sector.
Beijing is also currently acting upon the severity of environmental pollution from industry. The recent figures suggest that’s happening, with the March industrial output rate going down to 6 percent from the previous year, in comparison to the 7.2 percent for the month of January to February.
In other news, the January to March fixed asset investment rate has slowed down to 7.5 percent compared to a year ago, climbing down from 7.9 percent in the initial two months of the year.
Economists are predicting that the fixed asset investment to settle at 7.6 percent over the first three months of the year 2018.
Meanwhile, retail sales surpassed expectations in March, climbing 10.1 percent in comparison from the previous year, exceeding consensus expectations of 9.9 percent.
Some of the risks to the economy of China in 2018 include trade protectionism as president Trump’s administration is threatening to address the looming trade tensions between the two largest economies in the world.