China's National Bureau of Statistics announced Friday morning that the country's economy dropped 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 versus a year earlier, and 9.8 percent from the last three months of 2019. The contraction brings China's decades of uninterrupted economic growth to an halt — it's the first drop in quarterly gross domestic product since China started reporting that metric in 1992, The Wall Street Journal notes, and the first officially acknowledged economic pullback since 1976, The New York Times reports.
The reason for the drop in GDP is, of course, the new coronavirus that started spreading in Wuhan in early January, prompting China to shut down all but critical economic activity for about two months. Beijing has lifted most of those restrictions but imposed others, and economists are watching closely as China moves to restart its $14 trillion economy. But domestic consumption dropped further than forecast last month, and China's export-oriented economy is expected to continue suffering because much of the rest of the world has shut down to grapple with their own outbreaks of the virus.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Mountainhead: Jesse Armstrong's tech bro satire sparkles with 'weapons-grade zingers'The Week Recommends The Succession creator's first feature film lacks the hit TV show's 'dramatic richness' – but makes for a horribly gripping watch
-
Seeing Each Other: Portraits of Artists – a 'riveting' exhibitionThe Week Recommends Pallant House exhibition offers fascinating instances of painterly reciprocity
-
Geoff Dyer shares his favourite books on warThe Week Recommends Out of Sheer Rage author chooses works by Martha Gellhorn, Michael Herr and Dexter Filkins
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliablespeed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutinySpeed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress codespeed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirementspeed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement
-
Trump calls Amazon's Bezos over tariff displaySpeed Read The president was not happy with reports that Amazon would list the added cost from tariffs alongside product prices
-
Markets notch worst quarter in years as new tariffs loomSpeed Read The S&P 500 is on track for its worst month since 2022 as investors brace for Trump's tariffs
-
Tesla Cybertrucks recalled over dislodging panelsSpeed Read Almost every Cybertruck in the US has been recalled over a stainless steel panel that could fall off
-
Crafting emporium Joann is going out of businessSpeed Read The 82-year-old fabric and crafts store will be closing all 800 of its stores
