Chinese spending on infrastructure investments fueled stronger-than-expected GDP growth, despite weak consumer spending and a shrinking trade surplus, according to the official government statistics agency. China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced Thursday that the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, grew 1.3% compared to the final three months of 2025. If that rate continues, China is on track for a GDP growth of about 5.3% this year and comes in slightly higher than estimates.
The communist-run country’s real estate crisis, ongoing for several years, shows no signs of fading. The crisis, which caused a steep decline in apartment prices, gutted household savings. Consumers responded by cutting spending.
But, the data show that China saw an 8.9% increase in infrastructure investments in the first quarter compared to last year, a sharp increase. The Chinese government often directs spending to electricity grid improvements and transportation and other infrastructure projects in order to stimulate a flagging economy.
U.S. tariffs and instability from the Iran conflict have also undermined China’s export-driven trade surplus, which has been a large contributor to Chinese GDP growth in the past.
China’s GDP is second only to the United States’
Trending
- Failing British PM Starmer at War With Foreign Office To Save Himself, as Critics Say He Scapegoated Senior Civil Servant in Epstein-Linked Peter Mandelson Vetting Scandal
- Duke University Suspends Students for Justice in Palestine Chapter
- There’s a helpful translation tool hidden in your iPhone Messages
- California Leaders Concealed $2 Billion Accounting Mistake For Months
- Study Finds AI Use Eats Away at Users’ Confidence in Their Own Brains
- DHS Deports South American Illegal Aliens to Africa as Part of New ‘Safe Third Country’ Agreement
- President Trump: Very soon the “Great Strength” of the American Military will Create “a New Dawn for Cuba.”
- WATCH: Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan Tells MSNBC Democrats Must ‘Rip ICE Apart’ and Prosecute as Many Federal Agents as Possible