Trade war-hit China faces slowest growth in 3 decades next year

Economists predict 6.2% clip despite prospect of aggressive stimulus

A containership docks at a port in Qingdao, in China's Shandong Province. Economists see the trade war as the primary risk to the country's economy in 2019. © Reuters

TAKESHI KIHARA, Nikkei staff writer

December 26, 2018 16:45 JST

HONG KONG -- China's economy will grow at the slowest pace in 29 years in 2019, as the true impact of the trade war with the U.S. sets in, a new survey of economists projects.

The world's No. 2 economy is expected to expand 6.2% in real terms, based on the average forecasts of 32 economists polled by Nikkei and its group company, Nikkei Quick News. China's outlook is becoming murkier, with many of the economists saying the effects of fiscal stimulus and other measures are unlikely to show up until the second half of 2019 or thereafter.