00:00The takeaway is, apart from retail sales, most things were actually okay with the GDP print coming in with a
00:05five-handle, five percent.
00:06Yeah, five-handle. That's certainly quite interesting as well.
00:09That briefing is just underway. We'll bring you the latest once we get some more lines there.
00:12Joining us now is Houwei Wu, Assistant Professor of Economics at the China-Europe International Business School.
00:18Professor, it's great to have you here in town.
00:21Obviously, this is just a little glimpse of what we're seeing in March, but overall, your take on these numbers
00:27so far?
00:27Sure. So I think whenever we look at the headline GDP numbers, the number itself matters less, right?
00:33So it's on target. It's a little bit better than expectations, but it's nothing surprising.
00:37So as you guys are mentioning, right, the most important thing is about the composition of where that growth comes
00:43from, right?
00:43So the key things to watch are how the private sector is performing.
00:47So one of the things is consumption. The other is to look at private investment, right?
00:51So these are the things that really show whether confidence is stabilizing, whether internal circulation can work on its own,
00:58right, to have its own domestic demand coming.
01:02So how do things feel on the ground? You're based in Shanghai.
01:06I'm not sure that Shanghai is the best barometer of the entire economy, but I guess it also gives us
01:11a glimpse into the differences between first-tier cities and the different parts of the economy.
01:16Well, so I think for Shanghai, it's relatively okay. Of course, you can feel that there's this huge inequality as
01:24well, even in first-tier economies, right?
01:26So you have sectors that are performing very well, right, depending on which part of the city you're in and
01:31what sectors you're in.
01:33But overall, the average sentiment is okay.
01:35But if you go outside of Shanghai or outside of Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, right, it's very different, right?
01:41So third-tier, fourth-tier cities, you have a very different feel, right?
01:45So then I think China is performing in this way more or less like other developed countries, right?
01:51On average, it can mask the inequality that's showing up.
01:56Right.
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