China GDP growth moves lower than 7.5% annual target

China's economy has slowed for the seventh consecutive quarter, recording an expansion of 7.4% in Q3 on the previous year.

The move, lower than the 7.5% target for the year, is the slowest period of growth since the first quarter of 2009 and even if the economy improves in the coming months, China is on track for its weakest annual growth since 1999.  However, China is showing signs of being close to the bottom of its downturn, as investment, retail sales and production all accelerated at the end of the quarter, prompting Premier of the State, Wen Jiabao to say the worst was over, reported the FT. Sheng Laiyun, spokesman for China's national bureau of statistics said: "In the last quarter of [2012] , it i...