section_path: Impact by region or country/Asia-Pacific/China
section_name: China
paragraph_text: China
  
  As a result of the recession, China's economy contracted for the first time in almost 50 years. The national GDP for the first quarter of 2020 dropped 6.8% year-on-year, 10.0% quarter on quarter, and the GDP for Hubei Province dropped 39.2% in the same period.
  
  In May 2020, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced that, for the first time in history, the central government would not set an economic growth target for 2020, with the economy having contracted by 6.8% compared to 2019 and China facing an "unpredictable" time. However, the government also stated an intention to create 9 million new urban jobs until the end of 2020.
  
  In October 2020, it was announced that China's third-quarter GDP had grown 4.9%, hereby missing analysts expectations (which was set at 5.2%). However, it does show that China's economy was steadily recovering from the coronavirus shock that caused decades-low growth. To fuel economic growth, the country set aside hundreds of billions of dollars for major infrastructure projects and used population tracking policies and enforced the stringent lockdown to contain the virus. It is the only major economy that is expected to grow in 2020, according to the International Monetary Fund.
  
  By December 2020, China's economic recovery was accelerating amid increasing demand for manufactured goods. The UK-based Centre for Economics and Business Research projected that China's "skilful management of the pandemic" would cause the Chinese economy to surpass the United States and become the world's largest economy by nominal GDP in 2028, five years sooner than previously expected. China's economy expanded by 2.3% in 2020.
  
  In the first quarter of 2020, China's economy shrank by 6.8% due to the nationwide lockdown at the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak. With the help of strict virus containment measures and emergency corporate relief, the economy has steadily recovered since the pandemic. China's economy grew by a record 18.3 percent in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period last year.
  
  The urban unemployment rate reached a 21-month all-time high of 6.1% in April 2022 amid the impact of the epidemic.