China’s Growth Cools More Than Expected in Second Quarter

Exports rose 13.4 percent, while imports climbed 22.1 percent, exceeding export growth by 8.7 percentage points.

China's economy in the second quarter expanded at its weakest pace since the fourth quarter of 2022, reinforcing calls for policy stimulus as an accelerating slide in investments deepened the strain on growth, while consumption stayed subdued.

The closely watched GDP figures, released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday, marked the slowest quarterly growth since the end of 2022 and fell below the 4.48 per cent forecast from economists surveyed by Chinese financial data provider Wind.

Specifically, China's value-added industrial output of above-scale enterprises in the first six months rose 5.4 percent compared to the same period in 2025, while fixed-asset investment dropped by 5.7 percent year-on-year.