Losing speed, gaining strength

China released the summary of its overall economic performance in 2014 on Tuesday, which showed a 7.4 percent GDP growth, the lowest since 1990 and 0.1 percentage point lower than in 2013.

But losing some speed in GDP growth is not necessarily a bad thing for China. Lest we forget, observers used to describe the Chinese economy first as overheated and then as dangerously bubbling - from the early 1990s to a couple of years immediately after the 2008 global financial crisis. In fact, even now the country is carrying some of the momentum from the very rapid, and often unbalanced, growth of the past few years, as unsold new houses and unwanted manufacturing capacities still plague many cities.

So the slowdown in 2014 should be seen as the beginning of a transition, a transition that will continue for a few years strengthening the economy and sharpening competitiveness. The transition, as reflected in the National Bureau of Statistics' data released on Tuesday, is also characterized by things other than lower GDP growth.