China’s economy shrank in the March quarter for the first time since current records began almost three decades ago, as the coronavirus shut down factories and shopping malls and put millions out of work. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 6.8% in January-March year-on-year, official data showed on Friday, a slightly larger decline than the 6.5% forecast by analysts and reversing a 6% expansion in the fourth quarter of 2019. It was the first contraction in the world’s second-largest economy since at least 1992 when official quarterly GDP records started. Providing a silver lining was a much smaller-than-expected fall in factory production in March, suggesting tax and credit relief for virus-hit firms was helping restart parts of the economy shut down since February. However, analysts say Beijing faces an uphill battle to revive growth and stop massive job losses as the global spread of the virus devastates […]