Analysts have forecasted an average 2.7% year-on-year rise in gross domestic product for China for 2022, a sharp drop from 2021 growth of more than 8%. At least 10 experts said this has been among its weakest year in four decades after the twin crises of the pandemic and property market woes. China had set itself a growth target of around 5.5% for 2022, but this was undermined by the government’s zero-Covid policy, which put the brakes on manufacturing activity and consumption. Beijing abruptly loosened pandemic restrictions in early December after three years of enforcing some of the harshest Covid measures in the world. Zhang Ming, economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said the fourth quarter is relatively difficult. Economist Larry Yang declared 2023 as “the year of returning to certainty”.