China’s Economic Recovery Loses Some Steam, Investors Eye More Policy Easing

Workers labor at a construction site in Shanghai, China, on July 12, 2021. Aly Song/Reuters

BEIJING—China’s economy grew slightly slower than expected in the second quarter, weighed down by higher raw materials costs and new COVID-19 outbreaks. Expectations build that policymakers may have to do more to support the recovery.

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.9 percent in the April-June quarter from a year earlier, official data showed on July 15, missing expectations of an 8.1 percent rise in a Reuters poll of economists.