In a change from previous years, Beijing has made the annual economic growth target for 2026 a range from 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenXinyi Wuin BeijingPublished: 10:00am, 16 Apr 2026Updated: 10:08am, 16 Apr 2026China’s economy grew 5 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2026, putting Beijing on track to meet its annual growth target even as the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to cloud the global economic outlook.
The closely watched gross domestic product growth figure, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday, beat the 4.86 per cent forecast by economists polled by financial data provider Wind.
It marked an acceleration from the 4.5 per cent recorded in the last three months of 2025, which was China’s weakest quarterly growth in three years.
Beijing has made this year’s annual economic growth target a range from 4.5 per cent to 5 per cent, a change from the “around 5 per cent” goal set in recent years. The world’s second-largest economy continues to grapple with sluggish domestic demand and an ongoing property downturn, while the external environment remains clouded by geopolitical tensions and trade uncertainty.
Overall fixed-asset investment edged up by 1.7 per cent year on year in the first quarter, outpacing the Wind poll’s forecast of 1.33 per cent, after rising 1.8 per cent in the first two months of the year.
