Asian stocks trim losses as China beats GDP forecasts

Asia’s shares pared losses on Tuesday as China’s economy recorded a stronger-than-expected recovery from punishing pandemic lockdowns last year that led to a major slowdown.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.2%, a smaller decline than the 0.4% fall earlier in the session.

China’s economy grew 4.5% year on year for the first quarter which eclipsed the expectations of most economists.

The currencies of Australia and New Zealand , whose exports are reliant on Chinese demand, both popped higher after the GDP data.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) was down 0.4% in early trade on Tuesday while China’s bluechip CSI300 Index (.CSI) gained 0.3%.

“On balance, quite an encouraging report with retail sales, GDP and property sales coming in higher than expected … reinforces the story that recovery momentum post-pandemic remains intact,” said Christopher Wong, a currency strategist at OCBC in Singapore.

This report’s information was first seen on REUTERS; to read more, click this link.