Data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday showed GDP growth of 2.9 percent in the October-December period, compared to the same period a year ago, slower than the pace of 3.9 percent in the third quarter.
The rate still beats second-quarter growth of 0.4 percent and market expectations of a 1.8 percent rise.
On a quarterly basis, GDP stagnated, hitting zero in the fourth quarter, compared with growth of 3.9 percent in the July-September period.
But for the whole of 2022, GDP grew by 3%, far behind the official target of “around 5.5%” and far behind 8.4% growth in 2021.
Excluding the 2.2% growth after the first Covid shock in 2020, this is the worst performance since 1976, the last year of the decade-long Cultural Revolution that tore the economy.
China’s population is shrinking for the first time since 1961
China’s population declined last year for the first time since 1961, a historic shift that is expected to mark the beginning of a long period of decline in the number of its citizens, and for India to become the world’s most populous country in 2023.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the country had 1.41175 billion people at the end of 2022, compared with 1.41260 billion a year earlier.
Last year’s birth rate was 6.77 births per thousand people, down from a birth rate of 7.52 births in 2021, which is the lowest birth rate ever.
China also recorded the highest death rate since 1974, with 7.37 deaths per thousand people, compared to an average of 7.18 deaths in 2021.
Much of the population decline is due to China’s one-child policy between 1980 and 2015, as well as prohibitive education costs that have deterred many Chinese from having more than one child or even one child at all.
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