Vehicles for export at a port in Yantai, Shandong Province, China, on Jan. 18, 2026. AFP via Getty Images
China’s economy grew at its weakest rate in nearly three years in the fourth quarter of 2025, as a tumbling property sector remained a drag on the world’s second-largest economy amid weakening consumption and investment.
China’s economy expanded by 4.5 percent in the final quarter of 2025 from the same period last year, according to the regime’s National Statistics Bureau data published on Jan. 19. That represented the worst reading since Beijing abandoned its draconian COVID-19 pandemic lockdown strategy in late 2022.
