China’s growth was set to slow down from the torrid pace of past years. Its economy is now twice the size it was about a decade ago. Its labor force is shrinking, and the country is already full of roads, rails and factories, limiting potential new investment.

The question is whether there are any sharp dips along the path to ever-slower growth.

“What policymakers want is to make the process as long and as gradual as possible,” said Larry Hu, the head of China economics at the Macquarie Group, a big Australian financial services company. “The biggest challenge is to find new growth drivers from consumption and technology, as old ones such as property and globalization are fading out.”

Mao Shengyong, the spokesman of the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a news briefing in Beijing that the economy was not faring so badly given global difficulties like slowing international trade. “The national economy is generally stable, the economic structure is continuously optimized, and people’s livelihood and welfare are continuously improved,” he said.