Chinese economy slows down in fourth quarter of 2015, economists optimistic

The Chinese economy continued on a glide path in the last quarter of 2015, with some economists apparently sanguine on the chances of a successful and controlled slowdown in Asia's largest economy.

China's gross domestic product expanded at a year-on-year pace of 6.8% in the three months ending in December, after growing at a 6.9% clip over the previous three months.

That was slightly below the 6.9% pace forecast by economists.

In terms of quarterly rates of change, GDP slowed from the 1.8% pace seen in the three months to September to 1.6%.

"Chinese data this morning was a touch weaker than expected but nothing that points to an overall hard landing. The data overall still paints a picture of stabilisation.

"However, there is still no sign of recovery in Q4," analysts at Danske Bank said.

"The continued stability of the official GDP figures will do little to assuage concerns over their credibility. But even our own estimates, which point to much slower growth, suggest that the economy was broadly stable last quarter," was the verdict from Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics."

Activity levels in China's factories slipped from a year-on-year clip of 6.2% in November to 5.9% (consensus: 6.0%) in December, with electricity production "seeing a deeper contraction, albeit in part due to a less flattering base for comparison," Evans-Pritchard noted.

Fixed asset investment eased from a 10.2% pace of expansion over the first 11 months of the year to a 10.0% clip for 2015 as a whole. In real-terms, the FAI data appeared to be "slightly less weak" the same economist said.

Retail sales followed a similar pattern of growth, easing from a year-on-year pace of 11.2% in November to 11.1% in December (consensus: 11.3%).