China’s economy slowed in the fourth quarter of last year, highlighting the challenge facing Beijing as it attempts to implement painful reforms while maintaining the economic momentum needed to avoid defaults on its growing debt pile. Gross domestic product in the world’s second-largest economy expanded 7.7 per cent in the fourth quarter compared with the same period a year earlier – a slowing from 7.8 per cent growth in the third quarter, according to figures released by the government on Monday. Growth of 7.7 per cent for the whole of 2013 matched full-year growth in 2012, thanks in large part to an investment-heavy “mini-stimulus” in the third quarter last year that offered a temporary boost. Economists expect China’s full-year GDP growth in 2014 to come in at about 7.4 per cent, the slowest pace since 1990, when Beijing faced international sanctions as a result of the 1989 Tiananmen Square […]