China's economic growth slowest since 1990

China’s economy grew 6.6% in 2018, its slowest pace in almost 30 years, confirming a slowdown in the world’s second largest economy that could threaten global growth. After years of breakneck expansion, official data on Monday confirmed that China’s growth in 2018 was the country’s slowest reported rate since 1990 and down from 6.8% in 2017. The 6.4% growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2018 was last seen in early 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis. The latest economic figures suggest China may no longer be able to help shore up weakening global growth. A government campaign to rein in risky debt has been compounded by a trade war with the US, hitting consumer and business confidence. Over the past few months consumer spending, manufacturing output, and investment have reached record lows. So far China has held back from deploying the stimulus measures used in 2009 that resulted in a binge of infrastructure projects and bad debt taken on by companies and local governments. Analysts say stimulus measures would not only undo government efforts to lower risk in the financial system, but are no longer effective in spurring growth.