China's GDP growth still seen slowing to 6.5% this year - poll

According to a Reuters poll of economists from 72 institutions

• 2018 GDP still seen at 6.5%
• 2019 GDP seen slowing further to 6.3%
• Expects PBOC to keep benchmark lending rate unchanged at 4.35% until end 2019

The forecasts for a slowdown comes even after this morning's upbeat Q1 GDP figures.

Those polled indicated that the biggest risk to China's economy is rising trade tensions. The US is the biggest export market for China, so that is not a surprise.

But among other things, China's clamp down on financial system risk and its efforts to deleverage is also part of the reason why the economy is seen slowing in my view. Credit growth is shrinking - albeit slowly.

Higher borrowing costs in the country will dampen economic growth further, and that may result in less foreign investment this year.