China's economy last year suffered one of its worst annual performances in more than three decades, as the country also reported a continued population decline in 2023, China's National Bureau of Statistics reveals.

Gross domestic product expanded 5.2 percent to hit 126 trillion yuan ($17.6 trillion) last year. The figure is better than the three percent recorded in 2022, when strict zero-Covid curbs destroyed activity, but marks the weakest performance since 1990, excluding the pandemic years.