JPMorgan cuts China growth forecast to 3.7% from 4.3%

LONDON – U.S. investment bank JPMorgan cut its China full-year growth forecast from 4.3% to 3.7% on Monday, saying a deeper-than-expected contraction was now likely this quarter due to the country’s COVID-19 lockdowns.

The cut takes JPMorgan’s estimate well below the 5.5% Beijing has said it hopes to achieve this year and below the 4% level another major U.S. investment bank, Goldman Sachs, predicted last week.

“On the positive side, the darkest period might be behind us,” JPMorgan’s analysts said, pointing to a fall in the number of new COVID-19 cases in China last week.

(Reporting by Marc Jones, editing by Karin Strohecker)