China’s GDP growth slowed down to a record low of 2.3 percent in 2020, the lowest value in the past 40 years, amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
"According to preliminary estimates, China's GDP in annual terms in 2020 amounted to 101.598 trillion yuan [about $15.68 trillion], an increase of 2.3% over the same period last year," the NBS report says.
China’s GDP grew 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020, amid an improving epidemiological situation, NBS said.
According to the statistics bureau, the Chinese economy grew only 0.7 percent in the first three quarters of 2020 (decreasing 6.8 percent in first quarter and growing 3.2 percent in the second quarter and 4.9 percent in the third quarter). In 2019, the Chinese economy grew 6 percent.
