China’s GDP increased by 8.1 percent in 2021, despite a drop in consumption due to Covid-19-related restrictions and a crippling power shortage in the second half of the year.

China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Monday that the country’s fourth-quarter GDP increased by 4% over the previous year. Despite being slower than the third quarter, growth was faster than the 3.6 percent increase predicted in a Reuters poll.

The first, second, and third quarters saw growth of 18.3%, 7.9%, and 4.9 percent, respectively. The fourth quarter’s growth was the slowest in over a year and a half.

According to the NBS, the country’s total GDP in 2021 will be 114.37 trillion yuan ($18 trillion).

The 8.1 percent growth rate was the fastest in nearly a decade, according to Chinese official media, and was well above the government’s annual target of achieving a growth rate of at least 6%.

The Chinese economy grew by about 2.3 percent in 2020, despite being disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, which was first reported in the central city of Wuhan. It was the only major economy to grow that year.

In nominal terms, citizens’ disposable income increased by 9.1 percent to 35,128 yuan ($5,535) last year. “Weak consumer data also clouded the outlook, with retail sales in December falling short of expectations, rising only 1.7 percent year over year, the slowest pace since August 2020.” According to a Reuters report on Monday, “analysts in the poll expected them to grow 3.7 percent after rising 3.9 percent in November.”

According to the NBS, industrial production has been steadily increasing, with high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing seeing rapid growth. “Over the previous year, total value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size increased by 9.6%, with an average two-year growth of 6.1 percent. The value added of mining increased by 5.3 percent, manufacturing increased by 9.8 percent, and the production and supply of electricity, thermal power, gas, and water increased by 11.4 percent, according to the NBS.

High-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing both increased their value added by 18.2 percent and 12.9 percent, respectively.

“In general, China maintained the continuous and steady recovery of the national economy in 2021, and maintained the world’s leading position in economic growth and epidemic prevention and control, with major indicators meeting or exceeding expectations,” the NBS said in a statement released on Monday.

It also included a word of caution. “We must be aware that the external environment has become more complicated and uncertain, and that the domestic economy is under triple pressure from demand contraction, supply shock, and weakened expectations.”

According to the tabloid Global Times, the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant across China, including in Beijing, Tianjin, and the southern Guangdong province, as well as the resurgence of the Delta variant in multiple cities, has cast a shadow on spending during the Lunar New Year holidays and the economic outlook for the first quarter of 2022, though this impact is expected to fade away by the second quarter.

China’s GDP growth is expected to moderate to around 5.5 percent in 2022, according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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