Financial sector remains China's growth driver

Beijing

THE financial sector continued to fuel China's economic growth last quarter, cushioning a broader slowdown while also raising doubts over the sustainability of that boost amid renewed stock market weakness.

Financial services jumped 12.9 per cent in the three months through December from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. The industrial sector expanded 5.8 per cent, weighing on the 6.8 per cent overall gross domestic product growth rate.