China’s economic growth may slow down in 2012: Nomura

Economists, analysts and investment bankers have forecast a decline in economic growth for China in 2012, saying it may slip to 7.9 per cent in 2012, investment bank Nomura International (Hong Kong) Ltd said in a new research report.

This is the most pessimistic forecast coming from investment bankers, but most agree that global economic growth will most likely face a challenging year,, the report said.

The last time that China's economic growth was below 8 per cent was in 1998 when the financial crisis hit Asia-Pacific.

China's economic growth has slowed down for three consecutive quarters and the economy is reported to be feeling the impact of the euro-zone debt crisis and a weakening demand from American buyers.

China's November data for the most part showed that growth was slowing down further in the backdrop of the euro zone debt crisis, although retail sales were stronger than expected.

The country's industrial output growth hit its slowest pace in more than two years in November at 12.4 per cent, below the expected 12.8 per cent, and its weakest pace since August 2009.