It has been a tough year for China's economy as two of the country's three economic drivers — exports and investment — lost momentum. Consumption, though seen as one of this year's economic highlights, still isn't strong enough to offset the slowdowns in other parts of the economy, economists said. Looking ahead, the country faces the challenge of maintaining an average growth rate of 6.5 percent over the next five years, so economists believe that more easing is on the way — in both monetary and fiscal terms.
With only three days left in the year, investors are still hoping for a much desired new year gift from the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank. Many economists believe that another cut to banks' reserve requirement ratio (RRR) is likely before the first of the new year.
"It is likely there will be an RRR cut of 50 basis points (bp) by the end of 2015," Zhou Yingke, a Hong Kong-based economist at Barclays, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
In 2015, the Chinese government has adjusted monetary policy extensively to ease the economic slowdown.
The PBC has lowered the benchmark lending and deposit rates five times and cut the RRR rate four times to make more money available to the overall economy.
Accommodative monetary policy, along with other stimulus measures, have helped stabilize China's economy in 2015.
In the first three quarters of this year, the country's GDP growth stood at 6.9 percent.
And a number of research houses predict that China's economy will grow by 6.8-6.9 percent in 2015 — in line with the central government's target of "around 7 percent."
However, the economy will remain under pressure, primarily due to the slowdown in investment.
Many economists believe that China's growth will moderate further in 2016, and it is time for China to say farewell to an era of more than 7 percent growth.
A tough year
China's economy had a challenging year in 2015. Although there was some progress in restructuring, overcapacity remains a painful problem.
The financial markets have also had their share of problems. The mainland stock markets skyrocketed in the first half of 2015, only to come falling back to earth in the second half.
Two of the three major drivers of the Chinese economy decelerated further in 2015.
China's foreign trade dipped into a negative territory amid lackluster external demand.
In the first 11 months, China's total trade volume slumped 7.8 percent on a yearly basis to 22.08 trillion yuan ($3.4 trillion), customs data showed. Exports fell 2.2 percent year-on-year, and imports dived 14.4 percent.
Investment growth further slowed this year as severe oversupply and high inventories weighed. From January to November, fixed-assets investment grew by 10.2 percent year-on-year, slowing from 15.7 percent in 2014.
Real estate investment actually grew 1.3 percent year-on-year from January to November, in contrast with growth of 10.5 percent in 2014, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
In addition to monetary easing, the government also took a number of measures to arrest the downturn, including lowering import duties, simplifying customs procedures and encouraging private investment in major infrastructure projects.
The economy started to show signs of stabilizing in November. Total retail sales rose 11.2 percent year-on-year in November. Online retail sales fueled the acceleration. Also, industry production grew faster than expected in November, and the services sector also played an increasingly important role in boosting the economy.
