BEIJING—China posted one of its slowest rates of economic growth in decades Friday, as leaders nervously eye a potential trade standoff with incoming US president Donald Trump.
Beijing has announced in recent months its most aggressive support measures in years in a bid to reignite an economy suffering on multiple fronts, including a prolonged property market debt crisis and sluggish consumer spending.
However, calls for even further policy help came after official figures showed the Chinese economy grew five percent in 2024.
While the reading from Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was slightly above the 4.9 percent forecast in an AFP survey of analysts, it was still short of the 5.2 percent increase recorded in 2023.
The growth took place in the face of a “complicated and severe environment with increasing external pressures and internal difficulties”, the NBS said.
However, the 5.4 percent jump in economic growth seen in the final four months far outpaced the five percent forecast in a Bloomberg survey and was much better than the same period in 2023. AFP