BEIJING: China's economy returned to growth in the second quarter after a deep slump at the start of the year, but domestic consumption and investment remained weak as the shock from the coronavirus crisis underscored the need for more policy support to bolster the recovery.
Asian share markets fell, partly reflecting the broad challenges facing the world's second-largest economy as it tries to regain its footing and deal with heightened tensions with the United States on trade, technology and geopolitics.
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 3.2% in the second-quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, faster than the 2.5% forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll, as lockdown measures ended and policymakers ramped up stimulus to combat the pandemic-led downturn.
The bounce was still the weakest expansion on record, and followed a steep 6.8% slump in the first quarter, the first such contraction since at least 1992 when quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) records began.
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