China's economic growth slowed to 9% in the third quarter as global financial woes started taking a toll, the government said today, signalling it would respond with new stimulus measures.
It was the first time since late 2005 that quarterly growth slipped into single digits, providing the most powerful indication yet that China was not insulated from the international economic downturn.
'The growth rate of the world economy has slowed down noticeably. There are more uncertain and volatile factors in the international economic climate,' a spokesman from the National Bureau of Statistics said. 'All these factors have started to release their negative impact on China's economy,' he added.
As a result of the slowdown in the period from July to September, growth in the world's fourth-largest economy weakened to 9.9% over the first three quarters of the year. This was down from 10.4% in the first half of 2008 and 12.2% in the first three quarters of 2007.
The Chinese government signalled ahead of the release of the data that the need for new measures to boost growth had moved to the top of the policy-making agenda.
The government agreed on pro-growth measures such as support of home-buying and a cut in the tax on residential housing transactions. It also agreed on raising export tax rebates to ensure stable export growth.
China's trade surplus for the first nine months of the year reached $180.9 billion, down 2.6% year-on-year.
Confirming the trend for a slowdown in the heavily export-dependent economy, industrial output growth was 15.2% in the first three quarters of 2008, down from 16.3% in the first half.
China's policy makers started out the year focusing heavily on taming inflation after food prices rose rapidly, but this has gradually become less of a concern.
The figures released today showed that inflation continued to slow, standing at 7% in the first three quarters of 2008, and 4.6% for September alone. This compared with 7.9% inflation in the first half of 2008, and a near 12-year high of 8.7% recorded in February.
