China’s economy growing at slowest rate since 1990

China’s economy grew at its slowest rate in 25 years last year, official data has shown.

China’s leaders – who had set a target of “about seven percent” for GDP growth in 2015 – 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.

The yearly reading was down from 1.3-per cent growth for the first 11 months and two-percent growth for the Jan-Oct period, according to NBS data.

The speed of expansion is the weakest since 2009 first quarter when the rate of growth dropped to 6.2 percent.

Fixed-asset investment in the agricultural sector jumped the fastest, up 31.8 percent year on year, followed by 10.6 percent growth for the service sector and 8 percent for the industrial sector.

NBS chief Wang Baoan told reporters that this year would be “more or less the same as in 2015 and China’s economic growth will still face a complicated and volatile worldwide situation”, but said he was confident growth will “remain stable”. “Restructuring and upgrading is at an uphill stage”.

Analysts polled by Reuters expect the economy will lose more momentum this year, forecasting growth will cool to 6.5 percent even if Beijing ramps up fiscal spending and cuts interest rates again, as widely expected.

December exports shrank 1.4 per cent from a year earlier, well below the ruling party’s target of six per cent trade growth.

Uncertainty over the outlook for the Chinese economy, a key driver of global growth, has roiled worldwide markets lately.

The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 3% while the Shanghai Composite Index also gained around 3%.

“Meanwhile, though, consumption continued to expand robustly, supported by solid wage growth”.

European producers accuse Chinese firms of selling below the cost of production, and French economy minister Emmanuel Macron has warned that Europe would not accept the “Chinese dumping”. “They need it to avoid labour market stress”. Both before the 2008-09 financial crisis and after it, when China’s nominal GDP expanded by 18 percent or more, the country’s non-financial corporate sector was able to garner revenue growth that matched or exceeded the pace of value addition in the overall economy. On a quarterly basis, the Chinese economic growth eased to 1.6%.

“I think that at least the biggest fears about the real economy, fears that came to the surface during the stock market rout…I think those biggest fears were overblown”. That was up 5 percentage points from 2014. We’re not sure how to account for that decimal point; if any statisticians or demographers are reading, please enlighten the rest of us. Retail sales grew 10.7 per cent, significantly below the 12 per cent recorded in 2014.