China’s economy grew 7.7 per cent last year, the government says, in line with expectations and the same as 2012, when it recorded its slowest expansion in 13 years.

Growth for the October-December quarter also came in at 7.7 per cent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Monday, slowing from 7.8 per cent in the previous three months.

The 2013 GDP figure was the same as the median forecast in a survey of 14 economists by AFP and as usual exceeded the government’s growth target for the year, which was declared as 7.5 per cent.

Growth for the fourth quarter, meanwhile, was better than the AFP survey’s median forecast of 7.6 per cent.

“Generally speaking China’s economy showed good momentum of stable and moderate growth in 2013, which is (a) hard-earned achievement,” the NBS said in a statement.

“However we should keep in mind that the deep-rooted problems built up over time are yet to be solved in such a critical period for China’s economy.”

China is widely expected to face slower expansion in the years ahead with its leaders saying they are committed to transforming the country’s growth model to one where consumers and other private actors play the leading role, rather than huge and often wasteful state investment.

For 2014, the median forecast in the Agence France-Presse survey of economists was for growth to slow to 7.5 per cent.

Separately, the NBS said industrial output, which measures production at factories, workshops and mines, rose 9.7 per cent in December year-on-year, while expanding a similar 9.7 per cent for the full year 2013.

Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, gained 13.6 per cent in December from the same month the year before and rose 13.1 per cent in 2013, it said.

And fixed asset investment, a measure of government spending on infrastructure, expanded 19.6 per cent in 2013, the NBS added.