Growth in China’s gross domestic product slowed to 8.1% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, the country’s lowest rate of economic growth since the first quarter of 2009. On a quarter-on-quarter basis the picture was even worse, with annualized growth dipping to 7.4% from 7.8%, below the government’s 7.5% target for the year.
There was better news on the composition of growth. Responding to a question from China Real Time, National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Sheng Laiyun revealed that consumption spending by households and government contributed an impressive 76% of first quarter growth, up from an average of 41.6% in the last decade.
Real estate was the main domestic drag. The government’s continued efforts to tame bubbly house prices triggered a contraction in sales and new construction of residential property, with the impact rippling across China’s industrial sector.
