China’s economy grows more than expected thanks to stimulus push

China’s economy grew more than expected in the last three months of 2024, official data showed on Friday, as it awaits the likely imposition of fresh tariffs by US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next week.

China’s economy grew more than expected in the last three months of 2024, official data showed on Friday, as it awaits the likely imposition of fresh tariffs by US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office next week. The world’s second-largest economy, which is struggling with demographic challenges, also notched a surprise increase in the birth rate last year, reversing a trend of declines that emerged in 2017. China’s gross domestic product expanded by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. That’s considerably stronger than the 5.0% forecast by a group of economists polled by Reuters and represents an acceleration from the 4.6% pace posted in the third quarter. Momentum picked up in the last few months of 2024, after the Chinese leadership finally decided to go ahead with a much-needed stimulus package, mostly focused on monetary measures, in the last week of September. “In retrospect, the policy pivot last September was meant to defend the GDP target (of around 5%),” Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Group, wrote in a research note on Wednesday. Since then, policymakers have made a series of other moves – including a 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) debt package to help local governments, interest rate cuts and the expansion of a “cash-for-clunkers” scheme for household goods such as rice cookers – to boost growth.