China's Q3 GDP Expands As Expected

China's economy expanded as expected in the third quarter but the pace of growth slowed marginally largely due to measures taken by the government to contain debt risks.

Gross domestic product grew 6.8 percent year-on-year in the third quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics reported Thursday.

Although the growth rate was slightly slower than the 6.9 percent logged in the second quarter, it remained well above the government's full year target of about 6.5 percent.

Nonetheless, a less supportive fiscal policy stance and slower credit growth should result in a slowdown over the coming months, Julian Evans-Pritchard, an economist at Capital Economics, said.

China's economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development, President Xi Jinping said at the opening of the communist party congress on Wednesday.

Over the weekend, People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said China's economy is set to achieve 7 percent growth in the second half of the year on rapid growth in household consumption.

He said the economy grew at a slower pace over the past few years but growth rebounded 6.9 percent in the first half of the year.

The World Bank, earlier this month, said China will expand 6.7 percent in 2017 instead of 6.5 percent estimated in April. But growth will slow next year on gradual re-balancing away from investment and towards domestic consumption.

Quarter-on-quarter, GDP rose 1.7 percent, following second quarter's 1.8 percent expansion, NBS said.

Another data from NBS showed that industrial production grew 6.6 percent on year in September, faster than the 6 percent increase seen in the previous month and a 6.5 percent rise economists had forecast.

Similarly, annual growth in retail sales accelerated more-than-expected to 10.3 percent in September from 10.1 percent in August. Sales were forecast to climb 10.2 percent.

Meanwhile, during January to September, fixed asset investment rose at a slower pace of 7.5 percent after expanding 7.8 percent in January to August period. This was also weaker than the expected 7.7 percent.