China announces third-quarter gross domestic product figures
Analysts polled by Reuters expected GDP growth at 6.8 percent, cooling from a 6.9 percent expansion in the previous quarter
Guang Niu | Getty Images
A tourist guide holds an umbrella featuring a panda pattern in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China.
China reported third-quarter growth data Thursday that met expectations.
The country's National Bureau of Statistics said its third-quarter GDP growth was 6.8 percent compared to the same period last year, a day after President Xi Jinping made big promises for the country's economic future during a pivotal leadership meeting.
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast China to post a modest drop from the second quarter, with GDP to have grown 6.8 percent in the July-September period due to the government's efforts to cool the property market and cut debt risks. This is a tad lower than the second quarter's 6.9 percent expansion.
A statement from the statistics bureau painted steady but positive economic development in the first three quarters. It also highlighted challenges in a complex international environment amid structural changes domestically.
"We've seen the benefits of a synchronized global recovery in play. Exports have been quite buoyant versus last year and that has really given China quite a bit of buffer in terms of reducing the reliance on leverage expansion, reducing the reliance on fixed asset investment," said Helen Zhu, head of China equities at BlackRock.
As China is still an export-sensitive market, the current global recovery will give the rest of the economy "a very serious break" in terms of the growth required to reach targets, Zhu added.
Describing Thursday's data release as unsurprising, BlackRock's Zhu added that Chinese growth is now stable but with a better composition than before as the country continues to reduce borrowing in the corporate sector.
More at CNBC