May 2nd, 2025
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China's economy grew by 5.4% from January to March. This was because they sold many things to other countries before the U.S. put more taxes on Chinese goods.
Because of trade problems, experts think China's economy will slow down a lot soon.
China's leader, Xi Jinping, is visiting some other Asian countries this week. He wants to talk about free trade. He will say that China can help keep things steady and safe when the world is not sure.
Xi visited Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia. This week, Sean O'Neill from the U.S. government will visit Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Siem Reap in Cambodia, and Tokyo.
China wants to trade more with countries that are not the US. It shows this at trade fairs. At these fairs, China shows its large market and how well it can make products.
China's economy grew by 5% in 2024 because they sold many things to other countries. This year, the government wants it to grow by about 5% again.
A government spokesperson said that the new taxes will make China's economy a little difficult soon, but they will not stop it from growing in the future. He also said that China sells less to the US now than it did five years ago.
Sheng said that China's economy is strong and can handle problems. He said, "We can deal with difficulties from other countries and reach our goals."
From January to March, the economy grew by 1.2%. This is slower than the 1.6% growth in the last three months of 2024.
In March, China sold 12% more things to other countries than the year before. In the first three months, they sold 6% more. Companies did this because they wanted to sell their things before Trump's taxes were put on them. This helped China's factories to be very busy in the past few months.
A lot of this happened quickly because people bought many things before the U.S. increased taxes on goods from other countries. They wanted to get the goods before the taxes became higher.
Making things in factories went up by 6.5% compared to last year. This happened mostly because making machines and tools went up by almost 11%.
The parts of the economy that use new technology grew the most. For example, making cars that use batteries or both batteries and fuel grew a lot, by 45.4% compared to the year before. Making 3D printers went up by almost 45%, and making robots for factories went up by 26%.
The Chinese economy grew quite fast compared to other countries, but it has been slow to get strong again after COVID-19. This is because problems with houses have made more people lose their jobs, so families are careful with their money.
Prices went down a little in the first three months of the year. This shows that companies are making more things than people are buying. Also, people were not buying many houses or buildings, even though the government tried to help people get money to buy homes.
The problem with taxes is coming. It will hurt China when it is trying to get companies to spend money, hire people, and get people to buy more things.
Economists from companies and the government are still careful about what will happen, because Trump keeps changing his ideas about his trade war.
Because of what happened in the last two weeks, it is very hard to know how the taxes the U.S. and China put on each other will change, said Tao Wang and other experts from UBS.
The International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank think the economy will grow by about 4.6% this year.
When Trump became president, he first put a 10% tax on things from China. Later, he made the tax 20%. Now, for many things China sends to the US, the tax is 145%.
UBS thinks that if the taxes stay the same, China might sell much less to the US, maybe two-thirds less soon. They also think China's total sales to other countries could go down by 10%. UBS now thinks the economy will grow less this year, changing their guess from 4% to 3.4%. They believe growth will be even slower in 2026, at 3%.
In the last seven months, China has tried harder to get people to spend more money and businesses to invest more. They have given more help to people who want to buy new cars and appliances by trading in old ones. They have also given more money for houses and other businesses that need help.
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