China hits 2025 GDP target – but quarterly growth drops to 3-year low
China logs 5 per cent GDP growth in 2025, 4.5 per cent in fourth quarter as Beijing acknowledges ‘long-standing issues and new challenges’
China has confirmed that it achieved its annual growth target last year as the economy weathered an unprecedented trade war with the United States, but growth slowed to a three-year low in the final quarter, dragged down by a series of domestic headwinds.
Analysts expressed concern about China’s “lopsided” growth – with robust exports contrasting with soft internal demand – but pointed to the services sector as a “bright spot” as Beijing looks to shore up the economy heading into a new five-year plan cycle.
The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 5 per cent from a year earlier in 2025, in line with the government target of “around 5 per cent”, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.
Kang Yi, commissioner of the statistics bureau, said China’s economy had withstood multiple pressures to maintain steady growth in 2025, but cautioned that external pressures were intensifying and many “long-standing problems and new challenges” were affecting economic development.