BEIJING (AP) — China’s economic growth slowed in the final quarter of 2011 to its lowest rate in 2 1/2 years as U.S. and European consumer demand plunged and Beijing fought inflation.

The world’s second-largest economy grew by 8.9 percent in the three months ending in December, data showed Tuesday. It was the slowest expansion since the second quarter of 2009, when the economy grew 7.9 percent.

For the full year, the economy grew 9.2 percent, down from 2010′s blistering 10.3 percent after communist leaders tightened lending and investment curbs to prevent overheating and inflation.

Hit by an abrupt plunge in Western consumer demand, regulators reversed course in late 2011 and tried to prop up growth by promising more bank lending to help struggling exporters and avert job losses and the threat of unrest.

Also in 2011, China’s urban population exceeded the number of rural dwellers for the first time, rising to 51.3 percent of the nation’s 1.3 billion people, the National Bureau of Statistics announced.

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BEIJING (AP) — China’s chronically high inflation eased slightly in December, giving Beijing more room to stimulate a slowing economy, but politically sensitive food prices rose sharply.

Consumer prices overall rose 4.1 percent, down from the previous month’s 4.2 percent but still above the government’s 4 percent target for the year, data showed Thursday. Inflation in food costs accelerated to 9.1 percent from November’s 8.8 percent.

Lower inflation could clear the way for Beijing to cut interest rates or take other steps to stimulate slowing economic growth. But Chinese leaders might feel constrained by the jump in food costs.

Inflation that analysts blamed in part on the multibillion-dollar stimulus that helped China avoid the 2008 global crisis has declined steadily since hitting a 37-month high of 6.5 percent in July.

Beijing hiked interest rates repeatedly and tightened investment curbs in late 2010 and early 2011 to cool its overheated economy, but then reversed course after plunging global demand battered exporters.

Officials have promised more lending to help struggling exporters and entrepreneurs who have slashed jobs, raising the threat of unrest. The extent and potential impact of those measures is still unclear.

The rise in food costs, which account for up to half of monthly spending for poor families, was driven by a 21.3 percent jump in the price of pork, the country’s staple meat, and a 6.9 percent jump in grain prices.

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Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (in Chinese):

http://www.stats.gov.cn

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