China economy grows slowest in 29 years

Beijing: China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in almost three decades in 2018, losing more steam in the last quarter as it battles a massive debt pile and a US trade war, official data showed Monday.

The 6.6 per cent growth comes in above the official target of around 6.5 per cent and matches a forecast by analysts, but is down from the 6.8 per cent chalked up in 2017, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

And in a sign of the struggle Beijing faces, growth in the last three months of the year clocked in at 6.4 per cent, matching a low seen during the global financial crisis 10 years ago, with economists widely expecting the slowdown to deepen. “Everyone is widely concerned about the direction of the international situation where there are many variables and uncertain factors,” said NBS commissioner Ning Jizhe, noting trade protectionism was in vogue. “China-US economic and trade frictions do indeed affect the economy, but the impact is generally controllable,” said Ning.

While analysts say the standoff has dented confidence they attribute most of the downturn to the policies to tackle growing debt.