China\u2019s growth accelerated more than expected in the third quarter, boosting the odds of the economy reaching Beijing\u2019s annual target and dimming the prospects for additional easing measures.<\/p>\n
Gross domestic product grew 4.5 per cent from a year ago after a gain of 4.3 per cent in the second quarter, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday, compared with the median forecast of 4.4 per cent by economists surveyed by Bloomberg. That took expansion in the first nine months of the year to 4.6 per cent \u2014 within the government\u2019s annual goal of 4.5 per cent-5 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cBigger fiscal spending helped both fixed asset investment and retail sales,\u201d said Xing Zhaopeng, senior China strategist at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. \u201cThe recovery remains unsolid because the fiscal outlook is not stable. The question will be how much fiscal expansion can do in the future. We still see a downside risk to 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n
The improvement in the economy should give policymakers some breathing room, allowing them to hold off on further easing as they remain constrained by thin bank margins and persistent fiscal strain on local governments.<\/p>\n
Industrial production growth accelerated to 5.5 per cent on year in September, matching forecasts. Fixed-asset investment shrank 7.2 per cent in the first nine months of the year, unchanged from its drop in January-August.<\/p>\n
Retail sales picked up far more than expected to 1.1 per cent, versus a 0.4 per cent rise in August. Excluding car purchases, retail sales grew 3.9 per cent from a year ago, the fastest pace since October 2025.<\/p>\n
The yield on the government\u2019s 10-year bonds climbed one basis point to 1.65 per cent after the data release. The yuan held on to its earlier gain, rising 0.1 per cent to 6.6829 per dollar in offshore trading.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s currency has advanced over 4 per cent against the dollar since the start of the year to outperform most of its Asian peers, thanks to rising exports and the central bank\u2019s tolerance for a stronger exchange rate.<\/p>\n
Even as the slowdown intensified in recent months, officials initially focused on implementing existing pro-growth policies, before dialing up their support three weeks ago with a package of fresh targeted measures.<\/p>\n
Growth in the world\u2019s second-largest economy has been marked by a divide between booming exports \u2014 stoked by a global investment supercycle in artificial intelligence \u2014 and sluggish household spending, with investment stuck in a long slump. The job market has also softened while a years-long property downturn drags on.<\/p>\n
Property investment plunged 20.6 per cent in the first nine months, a deterioration from a drop of 19.9 per cent in January-August. The surveyed urban jobless rate unexpectedly improved to 5.2 per cent in September from 5.3 per cent in the prior month.<\/p>\n
Frail domestic demand has left China increasingly dependent on exports for growth. And that\u2019s put Beijing under rising pressure from trade partners to address its yawning surplus, which is on pace to hit a new high this year in excess of the $1.2 trillion recorded in 2025.<\/p>\n
The European Union is preparing to create new powers that could allow it to shut off China\u2019s access to its single market as part of a dramatic new push to rebalance bilateral trade.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, foreign leaders have called on Beijing to allow for more appreciation in the Chinese currency, which they say is undervalued and gives the nation\u2019s exporters an unfair competitive advantage. The International Monetary Fund estimates the yuan\u2019s undervaluation in the range of 17.3 per cent to 25.3 per cent in 2026, with a midpoint of 21.3 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, the latest data suggest growth momentum improved toward the end of the third quarter,\u201d said Zhou Hao, chief economist at Guotai Junan. \u201cWhile the property downturn and soft domestic demand remain challenging, stronger-than-expected GDP and retail sales figures, firmer manufacturing activity, and an improving labor market point to a more constructive outlook for this quarter.\u201d – Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s growth accelerated more than expected in the third quarter, boosting the odds of the economy reaching Beijing\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[23230,10863,72,113,17347,7319,6285,61,60,10864],"class_list":["post-659150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-automobile","tag-bestof","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-essential","tag-exports","tag-horizontal","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-topix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}