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Chinese Slowdown Renews Global Economic Fears

CBN

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China's economy is showing new signs of trouble Tuesday, with growth reaching a 25-year low in 2015.

It is just the latest report from China to fuel the anxiety of investors who are all too aware of the nation's huge impact on the global economy.

The world's second-largest economy is still growing, but the growth has fallen steadily over the past five years.

China's economy grew 6.9 percent in 2015, the communist government said Tuesday, down from 7.3 percent in the previous year. For the October-December quarter, growth inched down to 6.8 percent, the weakest quarterly expansion in six years.

"Official data do not point to a hard landing in the fourth quarter of 2015, but they provide little reason to stop worrying about China's drag on the global economy, either," economist Bill Adams of PNC Financial Services Group said in a report.

A sharp decline from China over the past two years has prompted fears of a dangerous spike in job losses.

The slowdown has rippled around the world. For example, it has led to decreased demand for South Korean electronics and Australian iron ore as well as Middle East oil and Brazilian soy.

China's slowdown and a plunge in Shanghai stock prices have prompted concern about a further loss of support from an economy once seen as an engine of global growth. That has depressed international financial markets even as the United States and Europe show signs of improvement.

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