Chinese Growth at 7.4% Is the Slowest Since 1990

"China’s stimulus efforts began kicking in late last year, boosting industrial production and retail sales, and helping full-year economic growth come close to the government’s target. The yuan and local stocks rose."

Gross domestic product rose 7.3 percent in the three months through December from a year earlier, compared with the median estimate of 7.2 percent in a Bloomberg News survey.

GDP expanded 7.4 percent in 2014, the slowest pace since 1990 and in line with the government’s target of about 7.5 percent. 

A soft landing for China would help a global economy contending with weakness that spurred the International Monetary Fund’s steepest cut to its world growth outlook in three years.

China’s central bank cut interest rates for the first time in two years in November and has added liquidity in targeted steps to buoy demand.

Read more: “The economy’s performance in 2014 stands out against the widespread hard-landing fears that prevailed early last year,”