Chinese economic growth slows to 7.6pc Ren Xiangfang, an economist at IHS Insight, said in a note that the speed of the deceleration resembled the aftermath of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. He added: "The length of consecutive quarterly GDP growth deceleration is even longer than the slide following the Asian Financial Crisis, six straight quarters, versus five in the Asian Financial Crisis." China's export market has been hit particularly hard by the malaise in the United States and Europe, with growth falling to 9.2pc in the first half, compared with 24pc in the first half of 2011. The property market in several major cities has also cooled significantly; confidence in the manufacturing sector has fallen; inventories have risen. In response, the government now appears to have shifted back to a pro-growth policy, making two surprise cuts to interest rates in less than a month. Bank lending grew strongly in June, and investment seems to have picked up considerably. Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, said this week that as a "large developing economy," China needed to "maintain a certain speed of growth." He promised to fine tune policy in the face of a "relatively large" downward pressure on growth and suggested more investment is on the way. Hong Kong share prices rose 0.6pc in the immediate wake of the release of the figures, with Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, the world's biggest bank, rising 1.3pc. However, the Shanghai index, which briefly rose, fell back by 0.2pc an hour after the figures were released.