A FARMER ON the outskirts of Beijing on November 17. China's GDP growth slowed to 7.4 per cent in the July-September period from a year earlier, the weakest in three years. The Work Report, a policy document approved by the congress, had outlined "a blueprint for China, under new circumstances, to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, advance the socialist modernisation and win new victory for socialism with Chinese characteristics".