U.S. economy may outpace China's this year for the first time in nearly 50 years

The growth of the U.S. economy is set to outpace that of China's for the first time in nearly five decades, a leap reportedly due to China's ongoing severe lockdown in an attempt to contain the COVID-19 virus.

The U.S. economy is projected to grow 2.8% this year, while the People's Republica of China is projected to grow nearly 30% slower, at just 2.0%. 

The last time U.S. growth was ahead of China's was its bicentennial year of 1976, when it grew by 5.39%.

China's slowdown is largely attributed to its continuing severe lockdown of Shanghai, which the country instituted earlier this year in an effort to contain the spread of a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak there. 

Nearly every other country in the world has moved on from the strict COVID lockdowns that spread around the globe in the earliest months of 2020, with China's Shanghai lockdown a major outlier in the current global pandemic response.