Beijing, January 18: China has recorded the lowest economic growth in four decades as it grew by 2.3 per cent according to the latest data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.

The statistics bureau cited that the reason behind a slow economic growth was due to the coronavirus pandemic. South China Morning Post reported that the country's growth rate last year was the lowest since the nation's economy "shrank by" 1.6 per cent in 1976. Xi Jinping Tells Donald Trump Coronavirus Outbreak Will Not Affect China's Economic Development.

"According to preliminary estimates, China's GDP in annual terms in 2020 amounted to 101.598 trillion yuan [about $15.68 trillion], an increase of 2.3% over the same period last year," the NBS report says as quoted by Sputnik.

According to the statistics bureau, the Chinese economy grew only 0.7 per cent in the first three quarters of 2020 (decreasing 6.8 per cent in the first quarter and growing 3.2 per cent in the second quarter and 4.9 per cent in the third quarter).

South China Morning Post further reported that the surveyed jobless rate, an 'imperfect' measurement of unemployment in China which does not include figures for the tens of millions of the nation's migrant workers, stood at 5.2 per cent in December, unchanged from November.

The fixed-asset investment grew by 2.9 per cent over the course of 2020 compared to 5.4 in 2019.

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