Amid trade war with US, China GDP grew 6.1% in 2019, slowest in three decades

China’s GDP figure matches an AFP analyst forecast and is within Beijing’s official target of 6.0-6.5 per cent. But last year’s growth was down from 6.6 per cent in 2018.

China’s economy weakened to its slowest pace in three decades in 2019 as weaker domestic demand and trade tensions with the United States took their toll, official data showed Friday.

China will release its fourth-quarter and 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) data on Friday. (Bloomberg File Photo)

The world’s second-largest economy grew by 6.1 per cent last year, its worst performance since 1990, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The figure matches an AFP analyst forecast and is within Beijing’s official target of 6.0-6.5 per cent. But last year’s growth was down from 6.6 per cent in 2018.

While China’s economy had been gradually losing steam over the first three quarters, growth stabilised at 6 per cent in the last three months of 2019 -- the same pace as in the third quarter, according to the NBS.

Ning Jizhe, commissioner of China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said China’s economy generally sustained a stable momentum of growth in 2019.

“However, we should also be aware that the global economic and trade growth is slowing down,” he said at a news conference.

He added that there were more sources of instability and risk, with the economy facing “mounting downward pressure”.