Asian markets breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday after China reported its economy had not slowed as far as many had feared, a rare glint of brightness amid gloom over the global outlook. The IMF tried to snuff out even that by trimming its forecast for 2015 world growth by three tenths of a percent to 3.5 percent, blaming weakness in Japan and Europe. In the end investors seemed thankful that China’s growth of 7.3 percent at least managed to pip forecasts of 7.2 percent, while retail sales and industrial production both ran ahead of predictions in December.