China's Economy Hits 5% Target in 2025 Amid Q4 Slowdown and Domestic Weakness

China's National Bureau of Statistics shared the Q4 2025 economic numbers on January 19, 2026. The GDP grew by 4.5% compared to the same time last year. It's a bit more than the predicted 4.4%, but it's slower than Q3's 4.8% and the slowest it's been in almost three years. Looking at just the quarter, the growth went up to 1.2%, which is better than expected (1.0%). For all of 2025, the GDP grew by 5.0%, which is just what the government was aiming for. This was helped by a big trade surplus and strong exports, even with problems around the world.

Factories did well in December, with production up 5.2% from last year. This is better than the predicted 5.0% and up from November's 4.8%. It shows that manufacturing is doing well, thanks to different kinds of exports. But, things aren't as good at home. Retail sales only went up 0.9% in December compared to last year, which is less than the predicted 1.2%. This shows that people aren't spending much, and the property market is still causing problems, with investments still going down.

The numbers suggest that the economy is growing in an uneven way. Exports are helping, but there are still problems like people not spending enough, prices going down, and the real estate market struggling. This makes things look careful for 2026. Many experts think growth will slow down to around 4.5%, which means the government might need to focus on boosting the economy at home instead of depending on other countries, since there are more problems with global trade.