China’s Economy Is Booming. Shoppers Are Skittish Anyway.

The world’s traditional growth engine is expected to report a double digit first-quarter jump. But consumers and small business aren’t fully sharing in the spoils.

Factories are whirring, new apartments are being snapped up and more jobs are up for grabs. When China releases its new economic figures on Friday, they are expected to show a remarkable post-pandemic surge. The question is whether small businesses and Chinese consumers can fully share in the good times. China is expected to report that its economy grew by a jaw-dropping double-digit figure in the first three months of the year compared with the same period the year before. The number is widely estimated by economists to be 18 percent to 19 percent. But the growth is as much a reflection of the past — the country’s output shrank 6.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020 compared with a year earlier — as it is an indication of how China is doing now.