Editor's note: Kamal Uddin Mazumder, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a banker from Bangladesh and also a strategic and global economic affairs analyst. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The first quarter of 2025 saw China's economy get off to a strong start despite a complex external environment, thanks to the country's rising consumption trend, resilient agricultural production, high-end manufacturing, stable employment and prices and strengthened market confidence.

China's macroeconomic performance in the first quarter is remarkable. According to data released on Wednesday by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's gross domestic production (GDP) for the first quarter of 2025 was 31.875 trillion yuan ($4.337 trillion), up 5.4 percent year-on-year and 1.2 percent quarter-on-quarter compared to the previous fourth quarter. This indicates a clear trend of economic resilience and development.

Amid anticipated changes, Chinese leadership has shown strong resolve and taken decisive actions to guide socio-economic development. Despite pressure from the escalating trade conflict with the U.S., China's economic performance is under close scrutiny. Notably, the economic performance exceeded experts' projections, outperforming a Reuters poll of 5.1 percent.

Driven by pragmatic diplomacy, innovation in emerging sectors, robust macroeconomic and fiscal policies, China's economy has been on a strong footing in the first quarter. Thanks to China's consistent opening-up, stimulus measures, rising cross-border travel, vibrant festival-driven consumption and active economic ties with ASEAN and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries, sectors ranging from manufacturing to domestic consumption have boomed.

China's value-added industrial production increased by 7.7 percent in March and 6.5 percent year-on-year for the quarter. While the service sector, especially modern services like information transmission, software and information technology services, saw rapid growth with an increase of 9.9 percent, equipment and high-tech manufacturing also recorded significant growth, with increases of 10.9 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively.

Due to the shifting global market and the prioritization of "new quality productive forces" by Chinese authorities, China's industrial firms have rebounded on stronger market demand. To build a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as its backbone and sci-tech innovation as its engine, China will further encourage and strengthen emerging industries, upgrade its traditional ones, consolidate and improve its competitive sectors and advance new industrialization.

The success of DeepSeek AI, for example, has drawn entrepreneurs to develop goods and services using its robust open-source technology. Investors think that useful artificial intelligence applications will boost their business expansion.

Food security, rural rejuvenation and grain production have all benefited from China's embrace of technology. In the first quarter, crop farming's added value rose by 4 percent year-on-year. There has been a modest improvement in China's urban unemployment rate, which dropped from 5.4 percent in February to 5.2 percent in March.

As a key measure of a nation's consumption power, retail sales of consumer goods increased by 4.6 percent year-on-year in Q1. The increasing demand for consumption over the Spring Festival and rising foreign arrivals throughout the quarter fueled the service industry. The market will continue to rebound as consumers' capacity for consuming high-quality items is unleashed, and service consumption will keep rising due to promotions around the upcoming public holidays and business events.

Fixed-asset investment (excluding rural households) grew by 4.2 percent, indicating consistent expansion in industry and infrastructure. China's economy is still heavily influenced by foreign investment and the main objective is to transition the conventional sector to a more sustainable one that depends on manufacturing and consumption. In order to remain a top international investment destination, China has unveiled a 2025 action plan that outlines 20 crucial measures to stabilize and increase foreign investment inflows.

China's foreign trade in goods increased by 1.3 percent year-on-year, reaching 10.3 trillion yuan, despite growing trade protectionism, mounting geopolitical tensions and ongoing trade bullying by the U.S. ASEAN remained China's leading trading partner in the first quarter, with overall commerce rising by 7.1 percent to 1.71 trillion yuan, accounting for 16.6 percent of China's total foreign trade. China's global economic partnerships, including those with ASEAN and BRI nations, are growing stronger.

Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to ASEAN nations – Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia – is expected to further boost China's trade with the region. With imports and exports hitting a record high of 5.26 trillion yuan, up 2.2 percent, BRI countries made up 51.1 percent of China's total foreign trade in the first quarter.

To keep driving the world's second-largest economy, Chinese policymakers will implement further support measures. The Chinese economy is well-positioned to meet this year's GDP growth objective when combined with the market-oriented macroeconomic policies, which boost both domestic demand and international investment.

It should be highlighted that to sustain China's economic growth, it is imperative to overcome specific challenges and make larger efforts as the external environment grows more complicated and unpredictable. Some positive steps have been taken by the Chinese government in removing regulatory hurdles and creating a favorable business climate for small and medium-sized enterprises as well as for unicorn and gazelle firms. In addition to drawing in foreign investment, they will enhance China's competitiveness on the global arena.

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