China’s economy grew a faster-than-expected 6.8% in the fourth quarter, boosted by higher government spending and record bank lending.

The world's second-largest economy had been forecast to grow 6.7 percent in the quarter, according to a Reuters poll of 42 economists.For the full year, China's economy grew 6.7 percent. 

China's statistics bureau said that consumption accounted for 64.6 percent of GDP in 2016, while per capital consumption rose 8.9 percent on year to 17,111 yuan ($2,490). Property development also contributed to growth, with total investment rising 6.9 percent for the year, up 5.9 percentage points from 2015.

This may be China's slowest pace of growth in 26 years, but it remains within the range for Beijing to meet its longer-term goal of doubling GDP and per capita income by 2020 from 2010 levels.

The economy in recent months has received a fillip from a pickup in the property sector.
China was set to announce a lower economic growth target for 2017 to around 6.5 percent, from last year's range of 6.5 to 6.7 percent, Reuters reported.

"A few years ago, the market would have been very worried about this and thinking it was a very negative thing. I think throughout time, people have seen that structural reforms and the quality of growth is much more important than just the pure quantity of growth," Zhu said.

"Growth momentum in China has actually improved a little bit in the second half of the year, led by the improvement in the industrial sectors and also the financial market recovery [in] year-on-year growth terms," Li Wei, a China economist at CBA."We think China's economy has entered this year, 2017, on a firmer footing."

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