FILE - Workers produce car mats in a factory of car interior pieces in Yantai in east China’s Shandong province on Feb. 21, 2024. China’s manufacturing and investment improved in the first two months of the year, while weakness in the property sector weighed on the economy, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday, March 18. Excavators work on the top of a building near the central business district in Beijing in Beijing, China, Monday, March 18, 2024.
The real estate sector remained sluggish, with investment in real estate falling 9% in January-February compared to the same period a year earlier. During the National People’s Congress meetings, China’s leaders pledged to refine property sector policies, including increasing financing to developers and building more affordable housing.
She said consumer spending was “buoyed temporarily” by spending related to the Lunar New Year holidays, the biggest festival of the year, and that without added government spending it would be difficult to keep up strong growth.