China, growth slowed (+4.5%) in Q4
Beijing's GDP lost momentum between October and December, but still reached the target (+5%) set for 2025
From our correspondent
NEW DELHI - Despite a new slowdown in the fourth quarter of the year (+4.5 per cent), China's economy ended 2025 meeting its 5 per cent growth target. Data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed a slowdown between October and December, characterised by industrial production holding up well in the last month of the year and a sharper-than-expected slowdown on the consumption and investment fronts.
The figure for the quarter was broadly in line with analysts' expectations (+4.4%) and lower than that for the third quarter (+4.8%). It is not considered very encouraging because it comes at the dawn of a year that, like the past one, promises to be characterised by American protectionist pushes, recently increased by the threat to use the weapon of tariffs to bend countries not aligned with the White House's neo-imperialist objectives.
That said, during 2025 Chinese exporting companies showed some resilience as, thanks to a diversification of outlet markets, foreign sales contributed about one-third of growth, the highest level since 1992, when they were worth 42% of the total. The most positive news for the Chinese economy came from data on industrial production, which grew 5.2% year-on-year in December, accelerating from November's +4.8%.
However, the world's second-largest economy has not expanded as slowly as it has in the past three months for three years, that is, since reopening after the Covid lockdowns in 2022. "Despite reaching the 5% target, China ended 2025 posting year-on-year slowdowns in every single quarter, which shows that domestic demand remains weak," explains Larry Hu, head of China's economy at Macquarie Bank. The Chinese economy had also grown by 5 per cent in 2024. For the current year, analysts were aiming for +4.9 per cent.
