China’s economic growth picked up in the final quarter of 2016 but its full-year performance was the weakest in three decades as it heads into a potential trade battle with US President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump, who takes office on Friday, has promised to increase duties on Chinese goods, putting pressure on industries that employ millions of workers.
Supported by government spending and a property boom, the world’s second-largest economy expanded by 6.8 percent over a year earlier in the three months ending in December, up from the previous quarter’s 6.7 percent, government data showed on Friday.
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Full-year growth was 6.7 percent, down from 2015’s 6.9 percent – and the weakest since 1990’s 3.9 percent.
“A touch faster growth than expected, but no real change in trend,” Bill Adams, of PNC Financial Services Group, said in a report.
China’s economy has cooled steadily as communist leaders try to nurture domestic consumption and reduce reliance on trade and investment, but trade still supports millions of jobs. Government spending and a surge in property sales last year helped offset a 7.7 percent plunge in exports, but analysts expect the economy to cool further.
“We do not expect this rebound to extend far into 2017,” Tom Rafferty, of the Economist Intelligence Group, said in a report.
