China 2022 Economic Growth Hit By Coronavirus Restrictions

China's economy grew last year at the second slowest rate in almost half a century - a sign of how the country's strict coronavirus regulations have affected businesses. <br />Official figures show the gross domestic product of the world's second-largest economy rose by 3% in 2022. <br />The policy had a major impact on the country's economic activity last year but the sudden relaxation of the rules has led to a jump in Covid cases that threatens to also drag on growth in the early part of this year. <br />Jacqueline Rong, deputy China economist from the BNP Paribas bank says the data came in stronger than our expectation. Nevertheless, it reveals the hard hit to the Chinese economy from a zero-Covid policy and a property rout in 2022. <br />Experts have voiced caution over China's economic numbers - with some warning that the trajectory of the data rather than the figures themselves are a useful guide to how the country's economy is performing <br />