Covid-19: China GDP shrank 6.8% in Jan-March quarter, 1st contraction in decades

This was the first negative growth reported by the world’s second-largest economy since it began logging quarterly data in the early 1990s.

China’s economy contracted for the first time in nearly three decades last quarter as drastic measures to contain the coronavirus pandemic brought activity to a standstill, official data showed Friday.

A woman wearing a face mask looks for products at a supermarket in Beijing following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease in China April 17, 2020. (REUTERS)

Gross domestic product shrank 6.8 percent in the January-March quarter from the same period a year earlier, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

It was the first negative growth reported by the world’s second-largest economy since it began logging quarterly data in the early 1990s.