China's official 5.2% GDP figures beat the country's expectations for 2023 but nevertheless marked the slowest rate of Chinese growth since 1990, excluding the years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reporting by France24.
A few factors drove this slow growth, per France24: problems in the previously stable and lucrative real estate sector, a shrinking population, and increased tensions with western countries interested in "decoupling" from China and investing in friendlier countries in the region.
