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WATCH: China's First-Quarter GDP Grows 4.5%, Beating Estimates

Source: Bloomberg

Good morning. Consumers power Chinese growth, Macron floats labor reform and Taiwan to buy 400 anti-ship missiles. Here’s what people are talking about.

China’s economy grew at a faster pace than expected in the first quarter as the end of Covid Zero gave way to stronger consumer spending and factory output, a sign the recovery is on track. Gross domestic product expanded 4.5% in the January-to-March period from a year prior, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday. That compared to growth of 2.9% in the final quarter of 2022, and was higher than the median estimate of 4% in a Bloomberg survey of economists. A rebound in consumer spending and a ramping up in government infrastructure investment helped to boost growth in the first quarter.