China’s Third-Quarter GDP Grows 4.8%, Meeting Expectations
By Qing Na
China’s GDP grew 4.8% year-on-year in the third quarter, on par with market expectations, official data show.
The growth rate, announced Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), matches the average estimate from a Caixin survey of economists.
It marks a further slowdown from the previous quarter, when growth slowed to 5.2% following an expectation-beating first three months. This takes growth for the first nine months to 5.2%.
After seeing growth of 5.3% in the first six months, analysts broadly anticipated faltering growth momentum for the second half of 2025, with global trade tensions a major concern.
After months of relatively stable relations between China and the U.S., tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated this month, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports as China tightens controls on exports of rare earth minerals, which are vital to advanced tech sectors from new energy to defense.
The economy also faces persistent domestic headwinds, including tepid demand, overcapacity, weak prices and a sluggish property market.
Below are some other key economic indicators released by the NBS:
— Value-added industrial production rose 6.5% year-on-year in September (compared with 5.2% in August)
— Retail sales rose 3% in September (compared with 3.4% in August)
— Fixed-asset investment dropped 0.5% year-on-year in the first nine months (compared with 0.5% in the first eight months)
— Infrastructure investment increased 1.1% in the first nine months (compared with 2% in the first eight months)
— Manufacturing investment grew 4% in the first nine months (compared with 5.1% in the first eight months)
— Property development investment dropped 13.9% in the first nine months (compared with a 12.9% decline in the first eight months)
Contact reporter Qing Na (qingna@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
caixinglobal.com is the English-language online news portal of Chinese financial and business news media group Caixin. Global Neighbours is authorized to reprint this article.
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