On the 16th, the National Bureau of Statistics released key data from China's first-quarter economic report. In the first quarter of 2026, China's economy grew by 5.0%. A spokesperson stated that the Chinese economy achieved a strong start in the first quarter of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, with improvements seen on both the production and demand fronts. Against the backdrop of a complex and volatile global economy and slowing trade growth, China's economic performance stands out as commendable. While maintaining steady expansion in overall scale, the Chinese economy also demonstrated a shift towards new growth drivers, optimized structures, and improved quality. The content of growth in terms of value, innovation, sustainability, and intelligence continued to rise.
Many indicators from the first quarter point to a recovery in economic activity. For example, in March, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index and the Non-Manufacturing Business Activity Index both returned to expansion territory, reaching 50.4% and 50.1% respectively. Industrial enterprise profits also rebounded rapidly. From January to February, profits of major industrial enterprises nationwide increased by 15.2% year-on-year, accelerating by 14.6 percentage points compared to the full-year growth rate of the previous year.
Despite a more complex external environment at the start of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, foreign trade delivered an encouraging performance. In the first quarter of this year, China's total goods import and export volume reached 11.84 trillion yuan, hitting a record high for the same period and achieving a year-on-year growth of 15.0%. This marks a return to double-digit growth since the fourth quarter of 2022.
From an investment perspective, national fixed-asset investment in the first quarter turned positive, growing by 1.7% year-on-year. Within this, investment in high-tech industries rose by 7.4% year-on-year. Emerging sectors such as the low-altitude economy and future industries like embodied AI and 6G are accelerating their development, gradually becoming new engines for investment growth.
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