China’s 4th-Quarter Economic Growth in 2025 Hits Weakest Pace in Nearly 3 Years

Exports contributed to nearly one-third of China’s economic growth as domestic spending and investment remained sluggish amid a prolonged property crisis.

Vehicles for export at a port in Yantai, eastern 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 last year, 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 Monday. That represented the worst reading since Beijing abandoned its draconian COVID-19 lockdown strategy in late 2022.