China's economy is growing at its slowest rate since the 1990s - and it could get worse | Markets Insider

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• China's economy grew at 6% from July to September, the slowest growth rate since 1992.
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• Much of this was because of slowing demand from abroad, as the trade war weighs on Chinese production.
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• The fear is that this slowdown will have knock-on effects on other major economies, like Germany, and further drag global growth.
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China's economy grew at 6% in the last quarter, the slowest rate since 1992, as the trade war bites into the global economy.

The number, released Friday by China's National Bureau of Statistics, missed analyst expectations of 6.1% from Bloomberg's median, as a slowdown in industry outweighed a pickup in services activity.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, a China economist at Capital Economics, said it was the lowest growth rate the country had posted since quarterly figures were released in 1992.

Much of this slowdown can be attributed to slowing demand from abroad for both Chinese goods going out and foreign goods coming in - and the trade war plays a large part in this, with declines in American imports and exports.

"Pressure on economic activity should intensify in the coming months," Evans-Pritchard said in an email. "Cooling global demand will continue to weigh on exports, fiscal constraints mean that infrastructure spending will wane in the near term, and the recent boom in property construction looks set to unwind."

Evans-Pritchard added he expected monetary policy to loosen to help drive growth but said that "it will take time for this to put a floor beneath economic growth."

The figures from China are likely to add to fears that the global economy is flirting with a recession, given the importance China plays in the world economic system. Other countries that rely on China, such as Germany, could be hampered by this; we have already seen manufacturing slip in the past year.

Last week, the International Monetary Fund's chief economist, Gita Gopinath, warned that trade wars could slow global growth to the slowest rate since the financial crisis of 2008-09.

"The weakness in growth is driven by a sharp deterioration in manufacturing activity and global trade, with higher tariffs and prolonged trade policy uncertainty damaging investment and demand for capital goods," Gopinath said, adding that "to rejuvenate growth, policymakers must undo the trade barriers put in place with durable agreements, rein in geopolitical tensions, and reduce domestic policy uncertainty."

Elsewhere in the report, China said that it saw an uptick in industrial production, to 5.8% in September from 4.4% in August, and that retail sales moved to 7.8% from 7.5%.