months of this year. these are the first set of quarterly gdp figures since the end of the country s strict covid poilcy in december. this boosted retail sales, which were up over 10% on this time last year. also a huge expansion in travel, with some 45 million air passengers taking trips last month. all of this has helped spark positivity from investors, with groups like citi upgrading their china growth forecast to 6.1% that s well over china s own targets. joining me now is rory green, chief china economist at consultants ts lombard. these numbers look strong. is it a short term bounce or was it more sustainable. it short-term bounce or was it more sustainable- sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for the sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for the remainder i sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for the remainder of 2024. what sust
short-term bounce or was it more sustainable- sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for the sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for the remainder i sustainable. it is generally fairly sustainable for the remainder of 2024. what sustainable for the remainder of 202a. what we should note about these numbers is that it is very different turn and normal china growth trajectory, they say is the consumer driving growth, whereas in the past it was property, exports. it is down to the consumer to drive growth this year and there is still a decent amount of pent up demand, more upside the head for the consumer to drive china s gdp. china s and government targets are around 5%. aren t they under promising here? looking at financial institutions, they are saying a figure more around 6%, yet the government is only 5%.- figure more around 6%, yet the government is only 5%
he testified on capitol hill this month. one of the big things the fed is worried about is the impactñrñr the trade war on the u.s. economy. that the incident rate cuts for that reason. there s global growth slowdowns as stephanie mentioned in europe and asia and the fed wants to isolate from that fallout. but you don t have to look very far to see the impact. you look at the second quarter gross domestic product. it isn t terrible. it s fine. but business investment dropped. with all the consumer driving growth in the second quarter. you look at any measure of manufacturing, in the industrial midwest. it is in recession right now and that s partly due to trump s trade war and people are unsure about what future policy will look like of the not building new factories. not hiring as many workers as before. in a way, trump is getting what he wants from the fed. at leaf part of it. not as much as he wants but he s getting it because the policies are bad for the economy.