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China's GDP in the third quarter slightly beat expectation to grow 6.9 percent, National Bureau ofStatistics said on Monday.
The growth rate, the slowest since the first quarter of 2009, dragged the growth in the first ninemonths down to 6.9 percent from 7 percent in the first half.
Meanwhile, industrial output in September grew 5.7 percent, while fixed-asset investment, a pillarof economic growth, further falling to 10.3 percent in the first nine months from 10.9 percent in thefirst eight months of this year, according to NBS data. Retail sale growth gained to 10.9 percentfrom 10.8 percent in August.
The growth was particularly dragged down by real estate investment, which further slowed to 2.6percent in the first nine months, from 12.5 percent recorded in the same period just a year ago.
Huang Yiping, an economics professor with Peking University, and a member of the central bankadvisory committee, said downward pressure will persist in the remainder of this year and nextyear, because the economy's traditional growth engines, such as labor-intensive manufacturingand capital-intensive heavy industries are losing stream while new engines, such as high value-added manufacturing and services, are developing but is not big enough to fill in the slack.
"It will take quite a while to foster those industries that will drive the next round of medium-to-highgrowth, so I think the downward pressure will be there for a while," he said. "Policy prop-up mightbring the growth up temporarily but that's not going to last."
Zhang Xiaoqiang, a former deputy-chairman of the National Development and ReformCommission, said policymakers don't have to be preoccupied with a 0.1 or 0.2 percentagepoints off the "7 percent" of official GDP growth target. GDP is just one of many policy targets.Other important growth targets included employment, household income, energy intensity, all ofwhich are on a good track.
For example, real household income in the first three quarters grew 7.7 percent, according toNBS, well ahead of the GDP growth.
Tsinghua University's Center for China in the World Economy, predicted in a Sunday report thatChina's growth will rebound to 6.9 percent from 6.8 percent expected this year, backed by awarm-up in property market and the trickle-down effect of previously-approved infrastructureprojects.