- Kevin Lai, senior economist at Daiwa
China's economic growth pace slowed to the lowest in six years in the beginning of 2015, while weakness in major sectors pointed to a further loss of momentum for the world's second-biggest economy. The Chinese economy grew 7% from a year earlier, matching economists' median forecast and compared with 7.3% in the preceding quarter. Measured on a quarterly basis, growth slowed to a seasonally adjusted 1.3% between January and March, the National Bureau of Statistics reported, down from 1.5% in the previous three months. The data built up pressure on the Chinese government to ease fiscal and monetary policy further in an attempt to underpin the economy. China's Communist Party officials have already lowered its official growth target for this year to around 7%, which would be the nation's slowest annual expansion in 25 years. Yet, recent indicators suggest that the economy could be losing steam more rapidly than many analysts had predicted. In March, industrial production rose 5.6% from a year ago, the slowest gain since late 2008 and well below economists' expectations of 6.9%, as factories continued to struggle with deflationary pressure and weak domestic and overseas demand. Moreover, land purchases by real estate developers plummeted 32% by area in the first three months of the year, while the real estate sector, China's major economic pillar, posted an annual 8.5% rise in property investment in the first quarter, the weakest since 2009.
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