Financial Times writes that China's economy grew at its slowest pace since 1990 last year but stayed within range of the government's target, as growth in services such as finance and healthcare cushioned a slowdown in manufacturing and construction. Inflation-adjusted fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth of 6.8 per cent puts the full-year figure at 6.9 per cent, broadly in line with Beijing's target of "around 7 per cent" for the year. The fourth-quarter figures were in line with economists' expectations, with a Reuters poll ahead of the numbers also forecasting 6.8 per cent growth. The data come as fears about the state of China's economy have shaken global markets and capital is leaving the country at an unprecedented pace. Investors are eager for clues about whether sharp declines in China's equity market and currency depreciation in the opening weeks of this year are a sign that the real economy is in acute distress, or whether policymakers can engineer a gradual slowdown that avoids financial crisis and social instability.

Reuters reports that China is expected to report its weakest quarterly economic growth in nearly seven years on Tuesday, adding pressure on policymakers to take bolder steps to ward off fears of a sharper slowdown that are jolting global financial markets. Chinese leaders have been struggling to put a floor under the economy, even as a fresh plunge in its stock markets and yuan currency CNY=CFXS have stoked worries from Washington to Wellington that conditions may be rapidly deteriorating. Fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to slow to 6.8 percent from a year earlier, down from 6.9 percent in the third quarter and the weakest since early 2009, according to analysts polled by Reuters.

Bloomberg writes that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the economy faces increasing downward pressure as he and President Xi Jinping vowed reforms a day before the nation announces what's expected to be its slowest annual expansion in more than two decades. Li called for the development of new economic drivers and improvement of traditional industries to fuel a medium- to high-speed expansion, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the premier's speech to provincial governors and cabinet ministers on Monday. China should push forward supply-side reforms amid industrial overcapacity and develop emerging and service industries, Xi said at the same seminar at the Communist Party Central Committee's Party School, according to Xinhua. China is poised to report a slew of data on Tuesday that's expected to show its two-speed economy is intact. The nation's stocks fell into a bear market last week on waning confidence that the government can manage the country's transition to a new growth model and to a more freely traded currency, while government bond yields fell to arecord low.