China’s economic output will lag behind the rest of Asia for the first time since 1990, according to new World Bank forecasts that highlight the damage wrought by Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policies and the meltdown of the world’s biggest property market.
The World Bank has revised down its forecast for gross domestic product growth in the planet’s second-largest economy to 2.8 per cent compared with 8.1 per cent last year, and down from its prediction made in April of between 4 and 5 per cent.
At the same time, expectations for the rest of east Asia and the Pacific have improved. The region, excluding China, is expected to grow at 5.3 per cent in 2022, up from 2.6 per cent last year, thanks to high commodity prices and a rebound in domestic consumption after the pandemic.
