China's economy and home prices slow at end of 2013

Data on Monday showed that China's economy slowed slightly at the end of 2013.

China's GDP grew 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year from the previous year, down from 7.8 percent growth in the third quarter. For 2013 as a whole, the economy grew 7.7 percent, the same as in 2012.

For the month of December, industrial production rose 9.7 percent from a year earlier while retail sales rose 13.6 percent. Fixed-asset investment excluding rural households increased 19.6 percent in 2013.

Over the weekend, China had released data showing that new home prices continued to rise in December. When compared with the previous year, home prices increased in 69 of the 70 cities tracked by the government.

Nevertheless, calculations by Reuters showed that average new home prices in the 70 cities rose 0.4 percent in December on the month, slowing from 0.5 percent in November and the fourth straight slowdown since a 0.8 percent increase in August.