China’s statistics bureau has revised down its estimate of 2014 economic growth to 7.3 percent from 7.4 per cent, in a move set to revive concerns about the health of the country’seconomy.
In a statement posted on its website, the National Bureau of Statistics said China’s grossdomestic product last year was Rmb63.6tn ($10tn), down about Rmb32bn from its initialestimate in January. The bureau attributed the revision to a lower estimate for the country’sservices sector, while industrial and agricultural output were both revised upwards.
China’s central bank surprised global markets last month with a 1.9 per cent devaluation of therenminbi, spooking investors who thought the move was aimed at boosting flagging exportsand economic growth.
The revision takes the country’s economic performance a notch further below its officialgrowth target for last year, which was set at “around 7.5 per cent”. The 7.4 per cent figurewas already the slowest rate of expansion since 1990.
This year’s growth target is “around 7 per cent”, although Chinese officials have admitted thecountry may struggle to hit that figure.
The downgrade to China’s 2014 GDP came after G20 finance ministers tried to dispel fearsover the potential global fallout from a Chinese slowdown.
Wolfgang Schaeuble, German finance minister, said the G20 had agreed there was no reasonto fret over slower Chinese growth, while Pierre Moscovici, the EU Commissioner for economicaffairs, praised “the absolute determination of the [Chinese] authorities to sustain growth”.
Also at the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Ankara, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’sBank of China, said China’s stock market had almost completed its “correction”.
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