we begin in china where we ve just had a slew of data that shows how deep the impact of both the pandemic and its demographics is having on society and the economy. data from the national bureau of statistics shows china s economy grew by 2.9% year on year for the last three months of 2022. that beat expectations reuters expected the economy to grow byjust1.8%. for the full year growth came in at 3% far below china s official target of 5.5%. excluding the year covid hit in 2020, this is china s worst showing in nearly 50 years. also today, the news that china s population has shrunk for the first time in more than 60 years a change that is expected to have deep economic, social and political implications for china. for more on that let s go to katie silver in our asia business hub. tell us more. that s right. the bi . tell us more. that s right. the big figure tell us more. that s right. the big figure that tell us more. that s right. the big figure that we ve tel
hello and welcome. friday, september 23rd. 9 a.m. here in london. 11 a.m. in ukraine. voting begins today in the four occupied regions on whether to become a part of the russian federation. the areas make up about 50% of ukraine s territory. if they join russia many believe that will provide vladimir putin the pretexts to claim russian territory is under attack and escalate the war. it s prompting people to flee the country in all directions. a long line of cars backed up at russia s border with finland. the government in helsinki is thinking of new restrictions to keep russians from entering. they re crossing into armenia and turkey. according to one witness, traffic at one checkpoint stretched 5 to 6 kilometers. it was a similar scene along the border with kazakhstan. trucks lined up as far as the eye could see. ticket prices are soaring for flights out of moscow. most of which is sold out for the next few days. the kremlin calls reports exaggeration and fake news. the mobi
a change that is expected to have deep economic, social and political implications for china. for more on that let s go to katie silver in our asia business hub. tell us more. that s right. the bi . tell us more. that s right. the big figure tell us more. that s right. the big figure that tell us more. that s right. the big figure that we ve tell us more. that s right. the big figure that we ve gotten i big figure that we ve gotten todayis big figure that we ve gotten today is china s population is still one. four billion. it sounds like a lot but the numbers are there were about 850,000 fewer chinese people at the end of 2022, compared to the end of 2022, compared to the same time last year. the reason this is problematic is they re seen notjust as one short term blip, but something of a trend. many population experts think this is going to likely usher in a period of decline in china s population numbers. and the reason for this being problematic is what we call demographic dec
of the longest quarantine programs. he announced an end to hotel quarantine. it will be replaced by three days self-monitoring. he also said the pcr test or negative pcr test is no longer required for people before they board that flight to hong kong. very welcome news, indeed, for businesses and for residents here in the territory. hong kong with its fate tethered to china. they ve had very tough border restrictions in place. at its peak people had to pay for and spend 21 days in hotel quarantine before they could arrive in the city. it was eased down to 7 days and in recent years. many population experts say that