China’s growth outlook has been cut to 7.7% from 8.4% on falling investments that could trigger a potentially “sharp” slowdown, according to a World Bank report.
The forecast is lower than the expected 7.8% expansion the country recorded in 2012 – its weakest in 13 years – as the economy, the world’s second-largest, struggles to pick up pace.
“The main risk related to China remains the possibility that high investment rates prove unsustainable, provoking a disorderly unwinding and sharp economic slowdown,” the World Bank said.
It said growth would likely recover to around 8% next year in 2015 – unchanged from the bank’s previous forecast – as “global conditions improve”.
In April, China announced unexpectedly weak growth of 7.7% for the first quarter at a time when analysts projected expansion to accelerate in 2013 at the end of last year.
The World Bank’s forecast cuts followed a similar move by the International Monetary Fund which lowered projections to 7.75 percent from the previous 8.0%, reports AFP.
