China's gross domestic product (GDP) reached 30.0670 trillion yuan (US$4.4216 trillion) in 2008, up 9 percent year on year, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday.

Gross domestic product (GDP) reached 30.067 trillion yuan (US$4.4216 trillion) in 2008, Ma Jiantang, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told a press conference.

The 9-percent rate was the lowest since 2001, when an annual rate of 8.3 percent was recorded, and it was the first time China's GDP growth fell into the single-digit range since 2003.

The year-on-year growth rate for the fourth quarter slid to 6.8 percent from 9 percent in the third quarter and 9.9 percent for the first three quarters, according to Ma.

Economic growth showed "an obvious correction" last year, but the full-year performance was still better than other countries affected by the global financial crisis, said Zhang Liqun, a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, or cabinet.

He attributed the fourth-quarter weakness to reduced industrial output as inventories piled up amid sharply lower foreign demand.

Exports, which accounted for about one-third of GDP, fell 2.8 percent year-on-year to US$111.16 billion in December. Exports declined 2.2 percent in November from a year earlier.

Industrial output rose 12.9 percent year-on-year in 2008, down 5.6 percentage points from the previous year, said Ma.

Economist Wang Xiaoguang said the 6.8-percent growth rate in the fourth quarter was not a sign of a "hard landing," just a necessary "adjustment" from previous rapid expansion.

"This round of downward adjustment won't bottom out in just a year or several quarters but might last two or three years, which is a normal situation," he said.

A report on Thursday from London-based Standard Chartered Bank called the 6.8-percent growth in the fourth quarter "respectable" but said the data overall presented "a batch of mixed signals."

It said: "We probably saw zero real growth in the fourth quarter compared with the third quarter, and it could have been marginally negative."

However, officials and analysts said some positive signs surfaced in December, which they said indicated China could recover before other countries.

December figures on money supply, consumption, and industrial output showed some "positive changes" but whether they represented a trend was unclear, said Ma.

Outstanding local currency loans for December expanded by 771.8 billion yuan, up 723.3 billion from a year earlier, according to official data.

Real retail sales growth in December accelerated 0.8 percentage points from November to 17.4 percent. Industrial output also accelerated in December, up 0.3 percentage points from the annual rate of November.