Constructing Quarterly Chinese Time Series Usable for Macroeconomic Analysis

During episodes such as the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, China experienced notable fluctuations in its GDP growth and key expenditure components. To explore the primary sources of these fluctuations, we construct a comprehensive dataset of GDP and its components in both nominal and real terms at a quarterly frequency. Applying two SVAR models to this dataset, we uncover the principal drivers of China's economic fluctuations across different episodes. In particular, our findings underscore the distinct impacts of consumption-constrained shocks on household consumption and its various subcomponents throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.