Retail sales, a key measurement of consumer spending, increased 3.7 percent year-on-year in December, compared with the 3 percent growth recorded a month earlier. China's fixed-asset investment rose 3.2 percent in 2024, and in the first 11 months it grew 3.3 percent.

China’s economy hit the government’s growth goal last year after an 11th hour stimulus blitz and export boom turbocharged activity, although looming US tariffs threaten to take away a key driver of expansion.

China reported its economy grew 5% in 2024, meeting its target of around 5%. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected China's full-year GDP growth to come in at 4.9%, just shy of the official target of around 5% — which analysts had said was ambitious.

China said that its economy expanded by 5% last year, but a variety of weak signals have raised skepticism among some outside economists.