CHINA ECONOMY BEATS EXPECTATIONS

China's economy exceeded Beijing's annual growth target in 2017, analysts said in an AFP survey, overcoming-

The government's battle against massive debt and pollution-spewing factories.

The world's second largest economy expanded 6.8 percent in 2017, much better than the official target of around 6.5 percent, according to the poll of 11 financial experts.

The reading is also an improvement on the 6.7 percent seen the previous year, which marked its worst performance in a quarter of a century.

Premier Li Keqiang last week said he expected growth to have come in ''around 6.9 percent.''  However, the forecast comes as fresh questions were raised about the veracity of government's data -

After an area in the northern municipality of Tianjin became the latest place to be found to have inflated its own readings.

''China economic growth beat market expectations in 2017,'' JP Morgan Chase economist Shaoyu Guo told AFP.

Guo noted that the expansion in the first three  quarters of the  year were ''led by infrastructure and real estate investment, and supported by consumption and  improved external demand.''

Trade continued to be a  major driver of  growth as data last week showed exports and imports  jumped in 2017, thanks-

To a  pick-up in the global economy with the crucial US and  European markets seeing stronger recoveries.

The improvement at home comes in spite of  government  efforts to reduce country's substantial debt and to combat its persistent pollution problems, which were both expected to curb  GDP growth.