Summary China said in the morning that its economy grew 7.7 percent last year.
HONG KONG (AFP) - Asian markets were mostly lower on Monday, after China released data showing the economy in 2013 maintained its slowest growth rate for more than a decade.
The losses came after a broadly negative lead from Wall Street, while Japanese gaming giant Nintendo lost almost a fifth of its value following a forecast last week that it would see a net loss in this fiscal year.
Tokyo fell 0.55 percent, Hong Kong slipped 0.51 percent and Sydney gave up 0.23 percent while Shanghai was 0.42 percent lower but Seoul climbed 0.24 percent.
China said in the morning that its economy grew 7.7 percent last year, the same as 2012, which was the slowest since 1999. Gross domestic product (GDP) expansion for the October-December quarter also came in at 7.7 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, from 7.8 percent in the previous three months.
But while the NBS said the Chinese "economy showed good momentum of stable and moderate growth" it warned of "deep-rooted problems" including a mountain of local authority debt.
UOB Kay Hian analyst Fan Zhang told Dow Jones Newswires: "We see more downside pressure for China s economic growth in 2014, mainly due to tight monetary policy, rising funding cost and slow recovery of demand."
That was supported by Wendy Chen, Shanghai-based analyst for Nomura International, who told AFP: "Judging from the data, our outlook for 2014 remains that China s economy will continue slowing down in the first half."
In Japan Nintendo s share price dived 18.43 percent at one point in response to its announcement Friday that it expects a loss of 25 billion yen ($240 million) in the year to March, reversing an earlier 55 billion yen net profit forecast. The firm managed to claw back some of the losses and in the afternoon its stock was down 9.56 percent.
The sell-off added to pressure on the Nikkei index as the yen also rose against the dollar and euro on speculation the Bank of Japan will maintain its easy money policy when its policy board meets this week. Reports said officials will wait until they can gauge the effects of a sales tax that is due to be introduced in April.
In afternoon Tokyo trade the dollar bought 104.11 yen against 104.30 yen in New York Friday.
The euro bought $1.3529 and 140.85 yen compared with $1.3535 and 141.17 yen in US trade.
Investors were given a soft lead from Wall Street after a mixed set of economic US data.
Official figures showed housing starts tumbled almost 10 percent in December from a five-year high seen in November. Separately, the Federal Reserve said industrial output rose 0.3 percent month on-month in December, extending its streak of gains since July.
The Dow rose 0.25 percent but the S&P 500 fell 0.39 percent and the Nasdaq lost 0.50 percent.
In oil trade New York s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for February delivery, was down 76 cents at $93.61 a barrel in mid-morning trade, while Brent North Sea crude for March dropped 21 cents to $106.27.
Gold fetched $1,255.73 at 0450 GMT compared with $1,241.24 late Friday.
