Last year’s growth of the Chinese economy slowest since 1999.

The growth of the Chinese economy accelerated in the fourth quarter to 7.9 percent year-on-year, but due to weakness in previous quarters, last year the world’s second-largest economy recorded its slowest growth in the last 13 years.

According to data released this morning by the National Bureau of Statistics, the growth of China’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of last year was stronger than in the third, when it was 7.4 percent, but for the entire past year, the economy grew only 7.8 percent, the lowest growth rate since 1999.

The data is somewhat better than expected, given that in a Reuters survey analysts estimated that China’s GDP grew by 7.8 percent in the fourth quarter and by 7.7 percent for the entire year. Although the growth of the Chinese economy accelerated after seven quarters of slowdown, analysts do not expect the continuation of this trend.

– The surge at the end of last year was quite strong, but it is not an impressive recovery. In the first half of this year, the economy will be quite strong, but the growth trend in China will continue to slow down – says Ken Peng, an economist at BNP Paribas.

Recession in the Eurozone and Japan, as well as slow growth in other major world economies, prevent China from achieving export growth rates like those before the global financial crisis of 2007, while domestic demand is not strengthening enough to stimulate the acceleration of growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Therefore, the Chinese government has also reduced growth estimates. For last year, the targeted level was 7.5 percent, while in the previous eight years the target was an economic growth of 8 percent. This year, according to government sources, the target is also a growth of 7.5 percent to implement structural reforms. In the absence of external incentives, Beijing accelerated the pace of infrastructure investment last year and introduced measures to stimulate personal consumption to support economic growth.

Additionally, the central Chinese bank reduced interest rates twice in the middle of last year and cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks. Such easing of monetary policy encouraged lending to the economy and citizens to accelerate GDP growth. However, rising inflation due to increased domestic demand, especially in the real estate market, reduces the central bank’s room for further easing of monetary policy.