(Adds details and background)
BEIJING, Feb 23 (Reuters) - China's consumer market
recovery was "strong" in January, the commerce ministry said on
Thursday, in one of its first optimistic assessments of
consumption, which until this year had been reined in by a weak
economy and tough COVID-19 policies.
Reviving consumer demand quickly is critical for an economic
recovery this year as the country's exports stagger amid
weakening global demand and the ailing property market struggles
to get back on its feet.
China's 3% economic growth rate last year was one of its
weakest rates in nearly half a century,hurt by harsh COVID-19
curbs that were abruptly lifted in December.
"From the consumption situation in January, the momentum of
recovery in China's consumer market was relatively strong," said
the ministry's spokesperson Shu Jueting, adding the government
will take more measures to revive and expand consumption.
The world's second-biggest economy showed some signs of a
rebound in January with rises in factory and services
activities, and ratings agency Fitch raised its forecast for
China's economic growth.
"A recovery in China's economy this year looks certain, but
the nature and speed of that recovery remain in doubt," Iris
Pang, Chief Economist of Greater China at ING, said in a
research note on Thursday.
(Reporting by Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo; Editing by Christian
Schmollinger and Christina Fincher)
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