Retail sales in China grew last month at the slowest pace in over a year, official data showed Friday, highlighting the battle facing authorities' efforts to counteract persistent consumer malaise.

The world's second-largest economy has been confronted with sluggish domestic spending since the end of the Covid pandemic, with a prolonged debt crisis in the property sector weighing on sentiment.

Many economists argue that China must shift to a growth model driven more by consumption than infrastructure investment and exports, long the key sources of activity.

Leaders are targeting overall growth in 2025 of five percent, a goal experts say remains within reach despite an apparent slowdown in the latter half of the year.

"External instability and uncertainty factors remain numerous, domest

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