Moody's also reported that residential home prices for China's 70 major cities continued to gradually recover last month. While the number of cities registering year-on-year price increases remained the same, the number of cities posting gains of more than 5 percent rose to seven, from five in November.
Chinese economic growth has steadily slowed since 2010 and the government reported economic expansion of 6.9 percent for 2015, a 25-year low that was in line with forecasts from the International Monetary Fund.