China GDP grows real 4.5% in 1st qtr as "zero-COVID" policy ends

China's economy in the January-March period grew a real 4.5 percent from a year earlier, official data showed Tuesday, with the pace of expansion accelerating from the previous quarter as the nation's stringent "zero-COVID" policy officially ended earlier this year.The growth in inflation-adjusted gross domestic product of the world's second-largest economy picked up from 2.9 percent in the previous three months, but fell short of a 2023 target growth figure of around 5 percent revealed last month.The National Bureau of Statistics said the country's economy "showed a steady recovery and mad…READ FULL ARTICLE