China's economy slows down to 6.7 per cent; lowest in 26 yrs?

China's economy, the world's second largest, grew 6.7 per cent year on year in 2016, the slowest pace of growth in 26 years but still within the government's target range set for the year, official data showed on 20 January.

Growth in the fourth quarter came in at 6.8 per cent, accelerating from the 6.7-per cent rise registered in the third quarter but still the slowest quarterly growth since the global financial crisis, figures released by China's National Bureau of Statistics said.

The world's second largest economy slowed down from 6.9 per cent in 2015.

However, China has revised the 2015 figures on 9 January under which the size of the world's second largest economy was officially stated to be 68.91 trillion yuan (USD 9.96 trillion) up 354.6 billion yuan from its preliminary figure.

In Dollar terms however, the figure was less comparitively as yuan continued to decline sharply since last year trading around 6.90 to US dollar.

The 6.7 per cent was in the range of 6.5 to seven per cent official target fixed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last year. Chinese President Xi Jinping has directed officials that the economy should not go down 6.5 per cent.

-PTI