The Chinese economy grew at 10.3 per cent in the second quarter over the year before, down from the previous three months as government efforts to cool the housing market and infrastructure investment began to bite.
The comparable first quarter figure was 11.9 per cent, when many economists feared China was close to overheating. For the first half of the year, the economy expanded by 11.1 per cent.
Although the slowdown was expected, other figures yesterday suggested the economy could be cooling more quickly than forecast, including a drop in the expansion of industrial production to 13.7 per cent in June, year-on-year, from the 16.5 per cent increase in May.