Economic growth in China down to 6.8 percent

Global Business

China GDPPhoto: CCTV News

China on Tuesday announced that its economic growth edged down to 6.8 percent in the final quarter of 2015 as trade and consumer spending weakened.

It meant the country’s full-year growth was at its lowest in 25 years.

“The international situation remains complex,” Wang Bao’an, commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a news conference in Beijing.

“Restructuring and upgrading is at an uphill stage. Comprehensively deepening reform is a daunting task,” he added.

Full-year growth declined to 6.9 percent, government data showed on Tuesday.

It was however in line with private sector forecasts and the ruling Communist Party’s official target of about 7 percent for the year.

Growth in China has fallen steadily over the past five years as the ruling Communist Party tries to steer away from a worn-out model based on investment and trade toward self-sustaining growth driven by domestic consumption and services.

But the unexpectedly sharp decline over the past two years prompted fears of a politically dangerous spike in job losses.

Story by the Associated Press