BEIJING: China’s economic recovery accelerated in the third quarter as consumers shook off their coronavirus caution, however, overall growth missed forecasts pointing to persistent challenges for one of the world’s few current engines of demand.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.9% in July-September from a year earlier, official data showed on Monday, slower than the median 5.2% forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll and following 3.2% growth in the second quarter.
“The rebound in Q3 GDP was less strong than expected, but was still a decent 4.9% YoY,” said Frances Cheung, head of macro strategy for Asia at Westpac in Singapore. “September data beat expectations, suggesting a pickup in momentum towards the latter part of Q3… The pickup in momentum was broad-based, which bodes well for the Q4 outlook.”
China’s yuan and major stock indexes trimmed gains following the weak-than-expected data, with the benchmark Shanghai index trading 0.6% higher and the CSI300 index up 0.8% after rising as much as 1% and 1.2%, respectively.
The world’s second-largest economy grew 0.7% in the first nine months from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
