China Growth Slows To Lowest Level Since 2009
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- 19 Oct 2020
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China's third quarter economic growth has slowed to 6.9% - its lowest level since the financial crisis in 2009.
The Shanghai Composite Index was lower on the news, but although it was the worst growth for six years it still beat analyst expectations of 6.8% annualised growth.
China's economic performance has ramifications across the world as the engine room of global growth, swallowing up commodities and churning out manufactured goods.
The world's second biggest economy has had a turbulent year on the back of growth concerns - the index which measures the fortunes of China's largest 300 companies lost more than a fifth of its value in August alone.
China's GDP expanded 7.3% in 2014, the weakest since 1990, and at 7% in each of the first two quarters of 2015.
Beijing has set a target of "around 7%" for 2015 a a whole.
The data eases concerns of a "hard landing" for the Chinese economy which caused major jitters to global markets over the summer.
The accuracy of Beijing's official statistics have long been called into question by analysts.
Commenting on the latest figures, CMC's chief market strategist Michael Hewson said: "This number does seem surprisingly good given how weak some of the more recent individual data components have been."
Industrial production growth of 5.7% was below market expectations while growth to fixed asset investment - spending on factories and machines which makes up the backbone of the Chinese economy - also slowed in the year to date.
Nominal GDP, which takes into account the fact the the Chinese statistics authority claims the economy is deflationary, fell to just 6.2% - the weakest level since 1999.
On a positive note, September's retail sales increased by 10.9% off the back of a 10.8% rise in August.
Numerous luxury retailers have cited China's growth concerns for poor sales growth with both Hugo Boss and Burburry issuing profit warnings last week.
The property market, which has been subdued for a number of years, also showed signs of growth in September with the rate of housing starts growing for the first time since October last year.
