BEIJING — China’s economic growth has slowed significantly, according to the latest figures, but it’s still moving along faster than most of the world and at a higher pace than many experts have predicted.
In the final quarter of last year, China’s gross domestic product, the main measure of economic growth, expanded by 8.9 percent. That’s down from earlier in the year and the country’s lowest growth rate in at least two years, but still faster than skeptics had predicted. Many have suggested that China’s underlying economic imbalances could be setting it up for a hard landing in months to come.
This far, the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday does not suggest a crash but rather a moderate slowdown. In a statement, the statistics agency’s director said the country’s growth “maintained steady and fast development in 2011.”
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The data lifted markets in Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng advanced 3.2 percent while the Shanghai Composite advanced 4.2 percent. Other markets posted more modest gains, like Tokyo’s Nikkei 225, which added just over 1 percent, and Singapore’s Straits Times grew 2.2 percent.
In a typically rosy picture of year-end statistics, the bureau said real-estate prices are slowing, agriculture production is up, growth is on target and the Chinese economy shows signs of healthy expansion and development. In a calculation that is apt to be reconfigured when final numbers are crunched, the agency said China’s economy expanded by 9.2 percent in last year compared with 2010.
The agency said that in spite of a notable gap between income levels for urban and rural residents, rural incomes have begun growing more quickly than those of city dwellers. That’s potentially important for China’s vast and untapped consumer market beyond the already developed cities. More to the point, the bureau noted, disposable income has risen by 8.4 percent in the past year across the country. Overall, retail sales were up 11.6 percent in China last year from 2010, the bureau said. Growth in car sales slowed slightly, while personal and home products sold more quickly than before.
Yet real trouble spots remain a serious concern for the world’s second-largest economy. China’s property market, for instance, has been called a bubble waiting to burst and the latest figures indicate a fast decline in real-estate values. Inflation was up 5.4 percent overall in cities last year, compared with a higher price increase rate of 5.8 percent in rural areas.