Slower growth ‘will be good news for China’

Somewhat slower growth will allow a reforming Chinese economy to become more stable and should be good news, the head of China’s central bank said yesterday, after the country announced its lowest expansion rate in 24 years.

Zhou Xiaochoan said the People’s Congress would discuss a lower growth target at its annual session in March. He declined to give a figure, saying it was for the congress to set.

China announced on Tuesday that growth slowed to 7.4% in 2014 — the lowest since 1990 — as property prices cooled, but the figure was slightly higher than markets had expected.