FX.co ★ China's economy ends up 2020 with positive GDP

China turned out to be the only major economy that can boast of the previous year's results. The country was able to end the rough coronavirus-striken 2020 with gains, albeit small. Its gross domestic product rose by 2.1% on an annual basis.

Local businesses were the first to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. They managed to make good money from selling medical equipment. According to chief China economist at Barclays in Hong Kong Jean Chan, Chinese manufacturers were able to adapt to the fast-moving crisis by switching up their production lines to new products essential in the COVID-19 era.

Overall, exports grew by 41% year-on-year. High-tech industry was the main source of export earnings for China. Sales of equipment and components brought the country $211 billion. Such an increase in export revenue supported the yuan. The national currency was able to gain in value to 6.5 per dollar from 7.1 per dollar in less than a year.

According to the IMF’s estimates, the national output of the US, China's major rival in the economic race, could have contracted by 4.3% in 2020. As for other world's largest economies, experts anticipated Spain, Italy, and France falling by 12.8%, 10.6%, and 9.8%, respectively. Germany was also estimated to end the year in the red (-6%). In total, developing countries lost 3.3 percent, while developed nations shrank by 5.8%.