The Chinese economy grew 4.9% from a year earlier in the third quarter of the year, slowing from the growth rate in the previous quarter as the headline growth figure was hurt by a high base comparison with the same period a year earlier.
The result beat the 4.5% economic growth expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal, and fell far short of the 6.3% year-over-year growth rate recorded in the second quarter.
When compared with the second quarter of the year, China’s gross domestic product rose 1.3% in the July-September period, quickening from the 0.8% quarter-over-quarter growth recorded in the second quarter, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.
For the first nine months of the year, China’s GDP expanded 5.2% from a year earlier, above Beijing’s official growth target of around 5.0% growth for this year.