China's economy grew at its slowest quarterly pace in seven years, touching down at levels last seen during the dark days of the global financial crisis in early 2009.
The world's second-largest economy grew by 6.7% in the three months to the end of June, compared with the same period a year earlier, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics, a mite better than the 6.6% forecast in a recent survey of economists, and matches the rate of growth in the first quarter.
Stock markets in China appeared unruffled and were little changed in Friday trading.
Investors were left reeling by last year's turmoil on Chinese markets, and have been preparing for the worst. But it appears things aren't quite as bad as expected.
Growth in the most recent quarter was buoyed by more state-backed investment. Retail sales also picked up, evidence perhaps of Beijing's attempts to transition the economy away from manufacturing and exports to services and consumption.
Still, the glimmer of good news may not last for long. For 2016 as a whole, economists said they expect gross domestic product growth to fall to 6.5%, the bottom end of the government's own target of between 6.5% and 7%. Looking ahead, economic expansion in 2017 is expected to slow further to 6.3%.
