China's growth rate slowed slightly in the third quarter, according to new figures, suggesting that government efforts to cool the economy are having some but possibly not enough of an impact.
For the three months to September, the economy grew 9.1% compared with a year earlier, after recording 9.8% in the first quarter and 9.6% in the second, the National Bureau of Statistics said.
Growth for the nine months to September was 9.5%, only slightly lower than the 9.7% rate in the first six months of the year, the NBS said.
The growth figures fell within a range of economist expectations and NBS spokesman Zheng Jingping that the data meant the dangers of the economy running ahead of itself had been brought to heel.
'In the first three quarters of this year, due to the further enhanced and improved macro-control measures, some unstable and unhealthy factors existing in economic life have been put under control,' Zheng said. 'The weak links have been enhanced which have avoided big ups and downs in economic life,' he said.
Nevertheless, while there were some positive signs the breakneck growth in Asia's second largest economy has been slowed, it is still racing ahead far ahead of the official 2004 target of about 7%.
Fixed-asset investment, a crucial measure of how much is being spent on major infrastructure projects and one of the key warning signs earlier in the year, was up 27.7% to $530 billion in the nine months to September.
That figure compared with 30.5% in the first nine months of 2003 but was at least down sharply from 43% in the first quarter of this year and 28.6% in the first half.
Inflation, however, remained high. It rose 4.1% in the nine month period and hit 5.2% in September alone, compared with 5.3% in August and July. First-half consumer prices rose 3.6%, compared with a rise of 2.8% in the first three months. For the nine months, industrial output was up 17%, compared with a rise of 17.7% in the first half.
