China's economy slowest pace in 24 yearsFriday 7 Nov 2014 China's economy is likely to grow at its slowest pace in 24 years this year and will cool further in 2015, weighed down by a cooling property sector and factory overcapacity and as top leaders push structural reforms, a recent Reuters poll showed.Growth in the world's second-largest economy slowed from 7.5 percent earlier in the year to 7.3 percent in the third quarter, which was the weakest since the global financial crisis. A similar pace is expected in the current quarter, leaving full-year growth at 7.4 percent, just shy of the government's target of 7.5 percent. "We expect the policy stance to remain supportive of growth, through the stimulation of infrastructure investment, further relaxing of property market policies and more 'targeted' monetary easing steps," Louis Kuijs, chief China economist at Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong. "However, we think policymakers will not resort to more significant and higher profile measures unless growth takes another turn for the worse. If it does, we can imagine more significant measures, including a cut in benchmark lending rates." Data last week showed Chinese home prices fell for the fifth straight month in September, wiping out a year's gains, reinforcing expectations that the government will have to roll out fresh stimulus to avert a sharper slowdown. Accounting for about 15 percent of China's economy, the property cooldown has crimped demand in 40 sectors ranging from steel to cement and furniture, becoming the single biggest drag on domestic activity. Source: Thomson Reuters
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