mandag 17. januar 2022

China cuts interest rates as economic growth slows

China has unexpectedly cut a key interest rate for the first time in almost two years as official figures showed its economic growth had slowed. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4% for the last three months of 2021 from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. That was better than most economists had predicted but was a lot slower than the previous quarter. In another sign of weakness retail sales growth for December fell to 1.7%.

For the year as a whole, official data showed that China's economy grew by 8.1%, which beat economists' forecasts and came in well above Beijing's annual target of "over 6%." However, some economists highlighted that the growth data, which was the slowest in a year and a half, has yet to take into account the effect of the latest coronavirus outbreaks.