BEIJING, Jan 22 (Reuters) - China's annual gross domestic product growth slowed in the fourth quarter to 6.8 percent from 9.0 percent in the third quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Thursday.
The absence of revised quarterly figures makes it impossible to say with accuracy when quarterly growth was last weaker.
Economists had expected a growth rate of 7.0 percent in the final three months of the year. [ID:nPEK111034]
For all of 2008, China's GDP growth slowed to 9.0 percent from 13.0 percent in 2007, the NBS said, snapping a five-year streak of double-digit gains.
It was the economy's weakest expansion since 2001.
Following is a breakdown of quarterly GDP growth rates for 2008 data (percent change from a year earlier):
Q408 Q308 Q208 Q108
6.8 9.0 10.1 10.6
Other key economic data releases by the bureau (percent change from a year earlier):
2008 DEC F/C-DEC NOV
CPI 5.9 ~ 1.7 2.4
PPI 6.9 -1.1 0.0 2.0
Urban FAI* 26.1 ~ 26.4 26.8
Overall FAI 25.5 ~ ~ ~
Industry output 12.9 ~ 4.6 5.4
Retail sales 21.6 ~ 19.6 20.8
* Forecast for December is for Jan-Dec; November figure is for Jan-Nov.
~ Not available.
China carried on a tenacious economic fight in an unusual and extraordinary year marked by natural disasters at home and financial crisis abroad, the NBS said in a statement.
"The international financial crisis is deepening and spreading with continuing negative impacts on the domestic economy," the NBS said.
It said China would effectively implement measures to promote growth, spur domestic demand, restructure the economy and improve people's livelihoods.
The NBS stressed the need to promote steady and rapid economic growth in order to maintain a "harmonious and stable social climate".
-- GDP in 2008 hit 30.067 trillion yuan ($4.4 trillion at current exchange rates).
-- Full-year investment in real estate was up 20.9 percent. (Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch and Zhou Xin; Editing by Alan Wheatley and Ken Wills)