After two decades of growing at an astonishing rate, China's economic growth has cooled off enough to cause problems in plenty of other economies. Figures released today show the economy grew 7.5% in the first quarter of this year, a rate many countries can only dream of but still the lowest since 1990, the BBC reports. Officials have set a target of 7.5% growth for the year, but analysts doubt China can hit even that modest target without stimulus measures.
China's growth rate has been slipping since its 2007 peak, and its government faces the tricky task of reshaping the economy to make it reliant on consumer spending instead of heavy industry, the Wall Street Journal finds. The shift has hit some countries hard, including Indonesia and Australia, where unemployment is rising and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently declared that "the China resources boom is over." But the picture is brighter for countries—including the US—whose exports go mainly to Chinese consumers. (More China stories.)