Official figures show China's industrial production over January and February grew at its slowest rate in almost a decade. 

Figures released by the Chinese government show that output at factories, workshops and mines in the world's second-largest economy, rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in January and February. 

The figures were the weakest since the global financial crisis in late 2008.  They come as China is trying to effect a difficult transition from an investment and export-driven growth model to one led by consumer spending, AFP reported. 

China’s National Bureau of Statistics has announced that retail sales, a key indicator of consumer spending, increased 10.2 percent in the same period. It also emphasized that fixed-asset investment, a measure of mainly government spending on infrastructure, expanded 10.2 percent on-year for the first two months of 2016.

China had earlier raised alarms over the prospects of its economic stability when it announced that its economy grew 6.9 percent in 2015, the slowest pace in a quarter of a century.    

Nevertheless, it announced on 6 March that its economy is not headed for a hard landing. Still, it emphasized that uncertainty and instability in the global economy do pose a risk to the country's growth.

China has massive foreign exchange reserves of more than $3 trillion to tap if needed, but a sharp decline in reserves in the past 18 months as Beijing sought to support its yuan has rattled some investors.

Central bank vice governor Yi Gang in early March reiterated Beijing will keep the yuan basically stable and there was no basis for continued depreciation.