China’s Q3 growth slows as expected

BEIJING: China’s economic growth slowed slightly in the third quarter, as expected, as the government’s efforts to rein in property market and debt risks tempered activity in the world’s second-largest economy.

The economy grew 6.8 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, in line with the median estimate in a Reuters poll and down from 6.9 per cent in the second quarter, said the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday.

In all, economic performance was solid and on track to comfortably beat the government’s target of around 6.5 per cent for this year.

“The data show that some deleveraging is continuing and government reforms are working but growth is still being supported at a reasonable rate,” said Kaori Yamato, senior economist at the Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.

Analysts had penciled in a gradual gross domestic product (GDP) slowdown due to an expected softening in property investment and construction as more cities try to cool surging housing prices, while a government campaign against riskier lending pushes up borrowing costs.

China’s economy has surprised global financial markets and investors with robust growth so far this year, driven by a renaissance in long-ailing “smokestack” industries such as steel.

At the same time, there are concerns about the state’s growing role in the economy: the acceleration in year-on-year state investment growth outstripped private investment growth last month.

While policymakers’ efforts to curb property market speculation and cut debt are hurting growth in some parts of the world’s second-largest economy, activity has been supported by better-than-expected expansion in trade and bank lending.

GDP in the third quarter grew 1.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter, compared with growth of 1.8 per cent in April-June, which was revised up from initially reported 1.7 per cent growth.

Factory output grew 6.6 per cent last month from a year earlier, beating expectations, while fixedasset investment expanded 7.5 per cent in the first nine months of the year, missing forecasts.

Retail sales rose 10.3 per cent last month from a year earlier, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 10.2 per cent rise. Disposable income grew 7.5 per cent in the first nine months of the year, the fastest rate in two years. Reuters

REUTERS PIC Analysts see a gradual slowdown in China due to an expected softening in property investment and construction as more cities try to cool surging housing prices.