In China, they announced a slowdown in GDP growth due to Ukraine

China’s GDP growth rate declined to 3% in 2022 due to the slowdown in the global economy and the consequences of the crisis in Ukraine, informs TASS with reference to the government report on the implementation of the socio-economic development plan.

“Growth rates of the world economy were slowing down, the external environment became more and more complicated due to the Ukrainian crisis, such problems as the global imbalance of demand and supply of grain and energy resources, high inflation and increased protectionism were intertwined,” reads the document, which was published at the opening of the 1st session of the 14th National People’s Congress.

The authors of the report added that in such a difficult environment, a number of indicators “differed from those planned”, and the regulation of macroeconomic policies in the world’s major economies had a side effect, which negatively affected China’s development.

Last year, China’s GDP growth fell to 3%, while the authorities planned to reach 5.5% growth. The final result was one of the lowest over the past 50 years, with the exception of 2020, when the growth of the Chinese economy slowed to 2.2% due to the coronavirus pandemic, the agency notes. According to the report, in 2022 China’s GDP amounted to 121.02 trillion yuan (about $18 trillion).

According to the Chinese authorities and economists, GDP growth in 2023 should be from 4.5 to 5.5% and get closer to pre-Covid indicators of 6.1%. The fact that Chinese President Xi Jinping and his associates are determined to achieve such indicators of GDP growth was reported in January by Bloomberg, citing Yao Yang, dean of the Institute of Public Development at Peking University.