China Annual Growth Hits Target Despite Fourth Quarter Slowdown to Three Year Low
China met its five percent growth target for 2025 despite a sharp slowdown in the final quarter. Weak domestic demand and property woes continue to weigh on the outlook.
Insights:
The National Bureau of Statistics in China 
CNannounced on Monday that the economy expanded by 4.5 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025. This growth represents a deceleration from the 4.8 percent recorded in the third quarter and marks the slowest quarterly expansion in three years. Despite this late-year softening, the world's second-largest economy managed to expand by 5.0 percent for the full year of 2025, successfully meeting the annual growth target set by the central government.
CNannounced on Monday that the economy expanded by 4.5 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2025. This growth represents a deceleration from the 4.8 percent recorded in the third quarter and marks the slowest quarterly expansion in three years. Despite this late-year softening, the world's second-largest economy managed to expand by 5.0 percent for the full year of 2025, successfully meeting the annual growth target set by the central government.On a sequential basis, the fourth-quarter gross domestic product grew by 1.2 percent compared to the previous three-month period, which surpassed analyst expectations of 1.0 percent growth. This data coincides with a modest rise in domestic equity markets, where the Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.6 percent following the release. However, broader investor sentiment reflected in international instruments like the iShares China Large-Cap ETF and the iShares MSCI China ETF remains focused on the underlying structural challenges facing the nation.
