Chinese GDP adds 1.8pc in Q3

The result indicates stimulus efforts are helping Beijing stay on track to meet its annual growth target.

The result keeps Beijing on track to meet its growth target of at least 6.5 per cent in 2016.

The Australian dollar has stumbled on the release of mixed Chinese data, with weak industrial production numbers offsetting stable GDP numbers.

China’s growth rate held steady in the third quarter, official data showed Wednesday -- an indication that government stimulus efforts are helping stabilise momentum in the world’s second-largest economy.

China’s gross domestic product expanded by 6.7 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, matching the pace of the previous quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The figure was in line with a forecast by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

However, industrial output failed to meet market expectations, rising 6.1 per cent in September as against a year earlier.

The figure represented a deceleration from August’s 6.3 per cent rate and fell well short of forecasts for a reading of 6.4 per cent.

News of the soft reading pushed the Australian dollar down US0.2c to US76.62c at 2.15pm (AEDT), with the local unit giving back all of its morning gains.

In the third quarter, China’s GDP grew 1.8 per cent from the previous quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, the bureau added, the same as in the second quarter.

The result keeps Beijing on track to meet its growth target of at least 6.5 per cent in 2016, although the speed of growth in the last two quarters was the slowest since the first three months of 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.

Resilience in Chinese growth may help ease wider concerns over sluggishness in the global economy for the time being, though China’s reliance on a hot property market and stepped-up government spending casts doubts on the sustainability of the current rate of expansion.

The latest figures follow some signs of improvement in the economy. Retail spending remains buoyant, manufacturing activity is increasing according to official figures, and wholesale prices have started rising after more than four years of falls. But exports and private investment continue to show weakness.

China’s central bank has cut benchmark interest rates six times since November 2014 and expanded its use of open market operations to inject cash into the banking sector in an effort to juice the economy.

But policy makers are concerned that any further across-the-board easing could encourage capital flight and put more pressure on an already weakening local currency.

with Dow Jones