China’s GDP isn’t living up to expectations. On April 15, Beijing announced that the economy grew by 7.7 percent in the first quarter, below the 8 percent predicted by a Bloomberg survey of economists, and even slower than the 7.8 percent growth registered for all of last year.
“Overall, the Chinese economy had a smooth start in 2013,” said new premier Li Keqiang at a seminar in Beijing on April 14, before the latest economic release. Still, “many uncertainties, both at home and abroad, still persist and make the overall situation quite complicated,” continued Li.
