China’s economic growth is expected to cool to 6.6 percent this year and slow further to 6.5 percent in 2017, even as the government keeps up policy support to help ward off a sharper slowdown, a Reuters poll showed. The world’s second-largest economy faces nagging downward pressure due to slack global demand that has hurt its exports, as well as risks from painful reforms to cut industrial overcapacity and a growing pile of debt that some analysts fear could spark a financial crisis.
The risk of a correction in the high-flying property sector could also pose a threat as more local governments rush to restrict home purchases to cool surging house prices and ward off housing bubbles. While fears of a hard landing appear to have eased, recent data also have highlighted growing imbalances in China’s economy, with growth increasingly reliant on government spending as private investment falls to record lows.