According to a recent poll by AFP, the Chinese economy is expected to have posted a strong rebound during the first three months of 2021, supported by an increase in exports as well as domestic demand. Economists polled forecast a growth of 18.7% YoY for China’s economy through Q1 2021, after having been the only major economy worldwide to grow during last year despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Respondents have forecast that China’s GDP for the year could come in at 8.5%, significantly higher than the government’s estimate for a growth of above 6% in 2021 and a great improvement over last year’s growth of 2.3%. A strong year-on-year growth can also be attributed to a poor performance during Q1 2020 when China had gone into shutdown mode to combat the spread of the initial coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier this week, China posted a strong increase in both exports and imports – a strong indicator of an improvement in economic activity powered by both domestic consumption as well as external demand. Unlike last year, the Lunar New Year holiday also saw higher levels of travel and spending by consumers, lending a boost to the GDP.

While China had imposed some restrictions on travel to contain a fresh outbreak of cases across parts of the country, the easing of these measures spurred a rebound in both domestic travel as well as retail sales. This lent further support to the rapid economic recovery underway through the first quarter of the current year.