HONG KONG (Reuters) – Analysts at Goldman Sachs said on Wednesday they were lowering their China 2022 GDP forecast to 4% from 4.5% as a result of COVID-related damage to the economy in the second quarter of this year.
It was more likely China’s economy would undershoot than overshoot their target, they added.
“Even this lower growth projection embeds the assumption that COVID is mostly under control going forward, the property market improves from here, and the government provides substantial policy offset through infrastructure spending in coming months,” they wrote.
China’s retail and factory activity fell sharply in April as wide COVID-19 lockdowns confined workers and consumers to their homes and severely disrupted supply chains.
(Reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong; Editing by Andrew Heavens)