Godwin ShaibuTHE rising pace of China’s economic recovery notwithstanding, the Asian giant early Thursday morning warned of economic headwinds and uncertainty.
Its economy ‘appreciated’ modestly in the second quarter of 2021 after showing signs of sluggishness.
The signs of economic recovery in the world’s second-biggest economy had raised hopes of more policy support.
China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), on a quarter-on-quarter basis, expanded 1.3 percent in the three months leading to the end of June, up from a 0.4 percent expansion in the previous quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics Thursday morning.
Bloomberg and Reuters polls had predicted a quarter-on-quarter growth of 1 to 1.2 percent.
When compared with year-on-year growth of 18.3 percent in the first quarter, second-quarter GDP was 7.9 percent higher than a year earlier.
The high growth in the first quarter threw back a near-complete halt in business and economic activity in early 2020 following the COVID-19 pandemic that erupted in central China and forced government to impose a nationwide lockdown.
With a whole lot of controversy, China’s impact on Africa has been mixed. Notwithstanding, its investments have, over the years, creating jobs and developed critically needed infrastructure.
They also contributed to economic growth, especially in areas lacking the intervention of international financial institutions, Western governments, and companies.
Ejeviome Eloho Otobo, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Global Governance Institute, Brussels, Belgium, and author of Africa in Transition: A New Way of Looking at Progress in the Region, in the piece he authored for Prime Business Africa said referred to a number of Chinese developmental interventions, especially the over 186 “important buildings” it constructed for African countries and regional organizations.
Making a straight comparison with that of the United States, Otobo, a diplomat based in New York, said China’s two-way trade with African countries stood at US$187 billion in 2020, while US trade was US$46billion.
“US’ foreign direct investment as of 2019 stood at 43billion marginally lower than China’s US$44.4billion.
“Some reports put China’s investment in Africa at over US$110billion, but that mixes investment with contracts. It is in development assistance that the gap is widest. China has made multi-year pledges of economic assistance for Africa over many years.
“At FOCAC IV In 2009, China announced a pledge of $10bn financial support to Africa. That amount was doubled in 2012 to $20 bn for the period 2012-2015.”
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