The Chinese economy is expanding at a faster pace than previously expected, suggesting the country is on track to meet its full-year growth target of around 5 percent, according to newly released data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. China’s GDP in the first quarter of 2023 expanded 4.5 percent over the same period in 2022, higher than previous forecasts. Reuters, for example, forecast a 4.0 percent growth in the first quarter based on its surveys of 70 economists. A close examination of the data, however, suggests that this recovery is unbalanced and still faces many…
