The gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s second largest economy rose by 6.9 percent in 2015, slumping to its lowest annual expansion rate in 25 years. The country’s economy grew at 6.8% in the last quarter of 2015, and at 6.9% in the whole year, which was just lower than the government’s target of around 7%.
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SHANGHAI China’s crude steel output fell 2.3 percent to 803.8 million tonnes in 2015 from the previous year, government data showed on Tuesday, the first drop in more than three decades as the economy of the world’s top producer slows.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, economic growth eased to 1.6 per cent in the fourth-quarter, versus expectations of 1.7 per cent and down from 1.8 per cent in the third quarter.
China’s leaders – who targeted growth of “about seven percent” – are looking to transform the country’s economic model away from the investment and exports of the past to one more oriented towards domestic consumer demand.
Slowing property investment, which used to be a main driver of the Chinese economy, has been seen as a drag on overall economic growth.
Softening trade and manufacturing have fueled concerns about the Chinese economy, which has been struggling with stock market routs and mounting debts to local governments.
Analysts polled by Reuters expect the economy will lose more momentum this year, forecasting growth will cool to 6.5 per cent even if Beijing ramps up fiscal spending and cuts interest rates again, as widely expected.
The upshot is that while the official GDP figures shouldn’t be taken at face value, growth does appear to have been broadly stable last quarter and the December data, although mixed, don’t suggest that China is now entering a deeper economic crisis. New housing starts declined 14 per cent as developers tried to sell off bloated inventories of unsold homes, though inventory floor area was still 15.6 per cent higher than a year ago, but down from 16.5 per cent growth in November.
Retail sales growth also decelerated, coming in at an annual rate of 11.1% against expectations for an increase of 11.3%.
Full-year growth for 2015 was the lowest since sanctions were imposed on Beijing following its crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement caused growth to plummet to 3.8 percent in 1990.
Alongside the GDP release, the NBS will also release industrial production, retail sales, and urban fixed-asset investment figures for December.
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The yearly reading was down from 1.3% growth for the first 11 months and two-percent growth for the Jan-Oct period, according to NBS data.
