China fourth-quarter growth slows to 4.5%, weakest in nearly three years as consumption misses forecasts
China’s 5% growth in 2025 met official targets despite a 4.5% Q4 slowdown and a 17.2% drop in property investment, offset by a record $1.2 trillion trade surplus.
- On Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics reported China's GDP grew 4.5% in the October-to-December period, slowing from 4.8% in Q3 and the weakest since Q1 2023.
- Against that backdrop, Beijing policymakers note domestic demand softened amid growing U.S.-China trade frictions and a 1.3% contraction in fixed-asset investment last year.
- In December, officials reported industrial output climbed 5.2%, retail sales grew 0.9%, and the urban unemployment rate remained at 5.1%.
- That outcome leaves policymakers able to hold off on large-scale stimulus as full-year economic output came in at 5%, helped by lower-than-expected tariff rates and exporters' diversification.
- Street-Level scenes in Huaqiangbei illustrate Chinese consumers on Jan. 14, 2026, capturing pedestrian activity amid uneven economic momentum.
102 Articles
102 Articles
Slowdown to 4.5% in the last quarter – Within target, but under increasing pressure for the world's second-largest economy
According to official data, China's economy has grown by exactly 5 percent. However, German companies doubt that there is an upswing at all. Above all, two children of concern are pulling the economy down.
Beijing announced that China's economy grew by five percent in 2025. The biggest challenges for the economy are reduced demand and the real estate crisis, while exports continue to grow.
China announced on this Tuesday that its economy had recorded an increase of 5% in 2025, one of the lowest in recent decades, at a time when the country faced weak domestic consumption, declines from the birth rate and an individualisation crisis in the real estate sector. The authorities of the world's second largest economy had set a growth target of “about 5%” for the last year, after an expansion of 5% in 2024. Gold and silver recorded price…
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