China hopes to make 2017 its annus mirabilis

Adept at balancing many fields

If real estate prices can serve as a barometer for monitoring a country's economic vitality, one would think the Chinese economy was at its peak in 2016. Actually, it wasn't.

Home prices had risen strongly in major cities since the start of the year after rising almost uninterruptedly for about 10 years. The country's economic growth rate, however, has gradually weakened since 2010 - and slowed to a 25-year low of 6.9 percent in 2015, as the world's second-biggest economy continues to shift away from its manufacturing roots.