China to skip quarterly GDP briefing as Xi Jinping holds party conclave

China to skip quarterly GDP briefing as Xi Jinping holds party conclave

China will break its tradition for holding a monthly press conference to answer questions on economic data, as President Xi Jinping convenes Communist Party officials for a policy meeting in Beijing.

The National Bureau of Statistics will skip a briefing initially scheduled for Monday and instead reveal second quarter growth figures online at 10 a.m., it announced in a schedule uploaded to its website Friday. The organization didn’t provide a reason for the change.

China last disrupted the usual format of its largest monthly data release in October 2022, when Xi held a twice-decade leadership reshuffle where he secured a precedent-defying third term. Agencies postponed the publication of gross domestic product figures and trade data for days during that event.

The data due Monday — which includes industrial production and retail sales — coincides with the opening of the third plenum, where hundreds of cadres will huddle behind closed doors to endorse Xi’s longer-term policy plans. That meeting itself has been delayed without explanation.

The data is expected to show the world’s second-largest economy grew 5% in the last quarter compared to the same period in 2023, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That’d be the lowest rate in three quarters, but should keep expansion for the first six months at 5.2%, in line with Beijing’s annual goal of around 5%.