Global stock markets have nosedived into the red after China revealed its economy has slowed to levels last seen during the depths of the financial crisis.
Panicked investors rushed to sell as the colossal Asian country revealed economy growth for the first quarter of 2016 fell to 6.7%—the lowest since 2009, CNBC reported.
Britain’s premier stock market the FTSE 100 was down by -0.35% breaking a recent run of gains by early morning.
European markets were also flashing red and Hong Kong’s main stock market ended the day down.
Critics fear China racked up huge amounts of new debt in a desperate bid to boost factory activity, investment and household spending over the first three months of 2016.
New loans, retail sales, industrial output and fixed asset investment in China were all better than expected.
Experts said borrowing to keep the economy afloat is worrying and showed the policymakers were failing to make structural reforms to the economy needed to help avoid avert boom and bust cycles.
Asia markets closed mixed in the final trading day of the week. Australia’s ASX 200 finished up 38.86 points, or 0.76%, at 5,157.48, after the energy and materials subindexes reversed losses of nearly 1% in early trade. The heavily-weighted financials subindex closed up 0.54%. For the week, the main index advanced 4.45%.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 snapped a three-session winning streak on the back of a relatively weaker yen. The benchmark index closed down 63.02 points, or 0.37%, at 16,848.03. Japanese stocks mostly ignored an earthquake that struck southwestern Japan on Thursday. The index added 6.4% for the week.
Across the Korean Strait, the Kospi closed down 1.22 points, or 0.06%, at 2,014.71. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index finished down 21.34 points, or 0.1%, at 21,316.47.
Chinese markets ended lower, with the Shanghai composite closing down 3.90 points, or 0.13%, at 3,078.45. The Shenzhen composite ended down 3.86 points, or 0.2%, at 1,978.58.
