China’s growth rate will fall to 7.5 per cent next year – its slowest for nearly two decades – the World Bank said on Tuesday as it sharply cut its outlook for the country’s economy.

In its quarterly report on the Chinese economy, the bank reduced its forecast from the 9.2 per cent growth it had been predicting only three months ago and said that the government should accelerate steps to rebalance the economy away from exports and investment towards more domestic consumption.