Chinese economy maintains growth momentum, contributes to global recovery, says scholar

ABUJA -- China's Q1 economic growth rate indicates that the country has been able to overcome economic shocks and keep a steady momentum of growth, continuing to make enormous contributions to global recovery, a Nigerian scholar has said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Charles Onunaiju, director of the Center for China Studies in Abuja, said China's structural reforms have strengthened the strength and the resilience of its economy.

According to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China clinched a GDP growth rate of 4.8 percent in the first quarter year-on-year, outperforming the 4-percent rate registered in the previous quarter.

"I think it is not surprising that China has done well. Pulling out 4.8 percent in the first quarter, 2022 was a good one, which is the best among major economies," said the expert, who has authored several books on the China-Africa cooperation and development.

China's has been strengthening the domestic market, while allowing it to engage "productively and energetically" with the international market, said Onunaiju, noting that "this measure of strengthening the key fundamentals ... has been a very solid foundation through which China has been able to fend off the worst of shocks."

"We have to recognize the fundamentals of China's economy. China has been undergoing structural reforms that are focusing on positioning the fundamentals for the changes, transforming the economy from low-end manufacturing to high-end services, to innovation-driven," he told Xinhua.

"Even when such unforeseeable shocks like the pandemic happened, the very strong foundations of these key economic categories were able to absorb it," Onunaiju explained.

While noting that China has struck a balance between epidemic control and economic and social development, the scholar said that China's recent efforts to further strengthen economic fundamentals and create a unified domestic market would enable the country to overcome other shocks and keep a steady momentum of growth.

China's current economic growth and performance will also have a tremendous impact on global recovery, the analyst pointed out.

As a major trading partner of hundreds of economies, China is no doubt a very strategic market which would help economies to recover, Onunaiju said.

"China's Belt and Road Initiative's good spending on infrastructure will also maintain the momentum of jobs in various countries. Most of the partner countries ... will also benefit from it," he said.