China may have recorded its worst annual growth rate in nearly a quarter of a century but the country’s leadership does not appear too worried.
“The national economy has been running steadily under the ‘new normal’, showing good momentum of stable growth, optimised structure, enhanced quality and improved livelihoods,” Ma Jiantang, head of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, said on Tuesday as he revealed the economy had grown 7.4 per cent last year, the slowest pace since 1990.
The main reason for the nonchalance is the fact that job creation and wage growth in China are both chugging along steadily, even as the economy slowed from 7.7 per cent growth in both 2012 and 2013.