China’s economic growth could slow to 7.1% in 2015 from an expected 7.4% this year, held back by a sagging property sector, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a new research report. Stronger global demand could boost exports, but not by enough to counteract the impact from weakening property investment. China’s exports are likely to grow 6.9% in 2015, quickening from this year’s 6.1% rise, while import growth is seen accelerating to 5.1% in 2015 from this year’s 1.9%. Fixed-asset investment (FAI) growth may slow to 12.8% in 2015 from this year’s 15.5%, while retail sales growth may quicken to 12.2% from 12%. Consumer inflation may hold largely steady in 2015 at 2.2%. China’s economic growth weakened to 7.3% in the third quarter of 2014, and November’s soft factory and investment figures suggest full-year growth will miss the 7.5% target and mark the weakest expansion in 24 years. Economists who advise the government have recommended that China lower its growth target to around 7% in 2015. The argument for a lower growth target is to allow the government to focus efforts on structural reforms that will improve the long-term sustainability of economic growth, rather than being forced to continually adjust policy settings to hit a short-term objective. China’s employment situation is likely to hold up well next year due to faster expansion of the services sector, despite slower economic growth, the report added.

The Chairman of Agile Property, Chen Zhoulin, has been released from house arrest and will return to work two months after first being questioned by authorities in Kunming, Yunnan. In October, the cash-strapped firm negotiated with offshore lenders including HSBC and Standard Chartered to extend for 12 months up to USD265 million of a USD475 million loan facility maturing this month. Last month, the firm completed a HKD1.65 billion rights issue with the net proceeds used to repay the loans.

The Watsons chain of health and beauty stores will continue to expand in China, according to Christian Nothhaft, COO of Watsons China. It has 100% coverage of the first-tier cities. In second-tier cities, the company still sees “a lot of store expansion possibilities”, he said. Watsons aims to have 3,000 stores by early 2017. The retailer is present in more than 70% of third-tier cities. The figure is about one-third in fourth-tier cities, where there is huge growth potential. Watsons has more than 4,000 stores and more than 1,000 pharmacies in 12 Asian and European markets. Its parent A.S. Watson Group is a Hutchison Whampoa company. About half of its brand’s stores globally are in China. On December 2, Watsons opened its 2,000th store in China, in Tianjin. Watsons-branded products, which have risen from very small shares of the total to more than 50% now, will keep growing, said Nothhaft. According to Euromonitor International, the health and beauty specialist retail market in China is valued at CNY976.1 billion this year, the China Daily reports.

Services for international students will be improved, Chinese top officials said. China will take measures to continue educational cooperation with other countries, including sending more Chinese students overseas and receiving more international students, and strengthening services for those who go out and come in, Vice Premier Liu Yandong said at the national meeting on overseas study in Beijing. With a total of 3.06 million Chinese students studying abroad between 1978 and 2013, China has become the country that sends the largest number of students overseas to study. China has also been one of the top destinations in Asia for overseas study, with 360,000 international students in 2013－a far cry from 36 years ago, when only 1,200 foreign students were studying in the country.

Shanghai stocks suffered their biggest daily loss in five years on December 9 as capital left banks and brokerages in a round of massive profit-taking, a day after the benchmark composite index broke the 3,000 mark for the first time in more than three years. The Shanghai Composite Index fell back to 2,856.27 points. The loss was the steepest decline since August 31, 2009, when the index slumped 6.74%. Total transactions of the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges hit a record CNY1.24 trillion, the highest since the exchanges began trading in the early 1990s. Investors took profits after authorities announced a new rule tightening the use of corporate bonds in a bid to better manage local governments’ debt and reduce risk in companies’ bond repurchases. Huatai Securities said institutional investors played a key part in profit-taking. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index was also hit by profit-taking and a slump in energy firms as oil prices hit five-year lows.