China reports slowest year of economic growth since 1990
China today reported its slowest year of economic growth in more than 25 years.
The nation’s economy grew by 6.7 per cent in 2016, down from 6.9 per cent in 2015, according to official data.
The figure represents the nation's slowest reported growth since 1990.
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“Perhaps inevitably, full-year GDP in 2016 of 6.7 per cent year-on-year was comfortably within the government’s target range, albeit the lowest rate since 1990,” said Emily Nicol, an economist at Daiwa Capital Markets.
Despite growth falling over the year as a whole, it came to a higher 6.8 per cent in the last three months of 2016.
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Nicol added:
Within the breakdown, consumption appears to have remained the driver of growth at the end of the year as credit growth remained supported by fiscal incentives – indeed, retail sales in December increased 10.9 per cent, year-on-year, the firmest pace for a year.
“But there was further weakening in industrial output and investment into year end, with the latter posting the weakest annual increase in 2017 since the 1999.”