BEIJING — China’s economy grew 4.5% in the third quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday, beating forecasts as strong exports of electronics and AI-related goods offset a deepening property slump and weak consumer spending.
Growth quickened from 4.3% in the second quarter and beat the 4.4% expansion economists polled by Reuters had expected, CNBC reported. GDP rose 1.2% from the previous quarter. Over the first nine months the economy grew 4.6%, to about 107.1 trillion yuan, putting Beijing on track for its 2026 target of 4.5% to 5% growth.
Industrial output rose 5.5% in September from a year earlier, while retail sales grew just 1.1%, and the urban unemployment rate stood at 5.2%. Fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% in the first nine months, and property investment tumbled 20.6%, according to CNBC.
Manufacturing output growth “remained robust at 6.0% year on year in September, buoyed up by stronger export demand for electronics, AI-related equipment and autos,” Duncan Wrigley, chief China economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, told The Guardian. China’s exports surged by more than a third in September, and its monthly trade surplus reached a record $133.5 billion.
Producer prices rose 5% in September, their fastest pace in more than four years, while consumer inflation remains below 1%. “It is clear that domestic imbalances between supply and demand continue rising,” said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University.
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics, The Guardian, CNBC
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