The World Bank raised its forecast of China’s economic growth this year to 8.5% from 8.1% and said Tuesday that a full recovery requires progress in vaccinations against the coronavirus, APA-Economics reports citing AP.
The report adds to positive signs for China, the first major economy to rebound from the pandemic. Factory and consumer activity are back above pre-outbreak levels, though authorities have re-imposed travel controls in some areas to counter outbreaks of new variants of the virus.
Chinese economic growth is likely to decline to 5.4% next year as the rebound from last year’s history-making global slump fades and activity returns to normal, the World Bank said.
Its forecast was an increase over a report in April that said China and Vietnam were the only East Asian economies to achieve a “v-shaped” recovery in 2020 with output back above pre-coronavirus levels.
China is on track to vaccinate 40% of its population by early summer, but “a full recovery will also require continued progress toward achieving wide-spread immunization,” the World Bank said.