"I must say that trade and economic disagreements do have an impact on the functioning of the economy, but this influence is generally under control", Ning said at a briefing, during which the country's economic results for 2018 were announced.
According to the published data, China’s GDP growth in 2018 slowed down to 6.6 percent, the slowest pace since 1990, but it coincided with the official forecast of the authorities. At the same time, the country's GDP growth slowed throughout the year from 6.8 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter.
The official noted that trade and economic differences between China and the United States began to manifest themselves in the second quarter of last year, and the Chinese government took a number of measures to ensure the stability of employment, financial sector, foreign trade, foreign capital and investment.
"If we look at it from the point of view of economic data, it is generally accepted that the fourth quarter, as a rule, is most influenced by the international situation. If we talk about trade and economic frictions, they affect not only the economies of China and the United States, but also the entire global economy", he explained.
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In early December, Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, called for a truce in their escalating trade war after their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.
China and the United States have been engaged in a trade war since US President Donald Trump announced in June that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs in a bid to fix the US-Chinese trade deficit. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade tariffs.