Chinese leaders are trying to reduce reliance on trade and investment by nurturing slower, more self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumption and services.
But the unexpectedly sharp decline over the past two years prompted fears of a politically dangerous spike in job losses. Beijing responded by cutting interest rates and taking other steps to shore up growth.
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.
The October-December growth figure was the lowest quarterly expansion since the aftermath of the global financial crisis, when growth slumped to 6.1 percent in the first quarter of 2009. Growth in the July-September quarter of 2009 was 6.9 percent.
"The international situation remains complex," said Wang Bao'an, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, at a news conference. "Restructuring and upgrading is in an uphill stage. Comprehensively deepening reform is a daunting task."
Tony Nash, chief economist at the Complete Intelligence Consultancy firm, said while it was a setback for the global economy, China's economy still grew more robustly than most countries.
"China has structural issues and the GDP figures deviated from the plan, but growth at 6.9 percent is not something to lose sleep about," he told Al Jazeera.............http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/china-economic-growth-slumps-25-year-160119033934927.html
19/1/16
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China’s economy grew 6.9 percent in 2015, official data showed Tuesday, slumping to its lowest annual expansion rate in a quarter of a century...
ReplyDeleteThe performance of China, the world’s second-largest economy, is a crucial concern for global investors, and its fourth-quarter growth also slowed to 6.8 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, its weakest since the global financial crisis.
Both figures matched the median forecasts in an AFP survey of 18 economists.
China’s leaders are looking to transform the country’s economic model away from one driven by investment and exports in the past and more oriented towards consumer demand.
The structural transformation was still under way, the NBS said in a statement, adding it was “a crucial period during which challenges need to be overcome and problems need to be resolved and the task of comprehensively deepening the reform is still heavy”.
The 2015 figure was well below the 7.3 percent growth recorded in 2014......http://www.france24.com/en/20160119-china-growth-slowest-25-years