Hit hard by a sharp drop in its trade surplus due to decreasing exports and rising inflation, China's GDP growth rate slowed to 9.1% in the third quarter, the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2010, sparking concerns about a possible hard landing of its economy.
China's GDP expanded by 9.1% year-on-year in the third quarter of the year, down from 9.5% in the second quarter and 9.7% in the first quarter, China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said today.
The economy expanded by 2.3% in July-September on a quarterly basis, NBS spokesman Sheng Laiyun said at a press conference.
According to preliminary statistics, the country's GDP touched 32.07 trillion yuan ($5.01 trillion) in the first nine months, up 9.4% year-on-year, Sheng said.
Terming the decline in GDP as a "modest slow down", he said the country's economic performance was "generally good" and had developed in line with macro-economic steps taken by China in the first nine months.
Despite the challenges and uncertainties both at home and abroad, there is a great chance that China's economy will maintain its stable and relatively fast growth in the coming period, boosted by the strong growth momentum, Sheng claimed.
The World Bank projected China's real GDP growth at 9.3% this year, while the Asian Development Bank projected it to grow at around 9.6%.
The slowdown came as China's trade surplus fell for the second straight month in September, dropping by 12.4% year-on-year to $14.51 billion due to sluggish global demand and rising costs in domestic markets.
Its exports rose to 17.1% year-on-year to reach $169.67 billion last month, but at the same time, imports surged by 20.9% to $155.16 billion, according to new data released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
There have been concerns that the debt crisis in Europe may hurt growth in the region and dent consumer demand.
That is likely to have a big impact on China's export sector, as the EU is the world's biggest purchaser of Chinese goods, with the market worth about $380 billion in 2010.
In view of the economic crisis in US and EU, analysts predict a continued drop in China's exports in coming months.
"The export growth was slower than expected. It will decline to 10 to 15% in the future as demand continues to weaken," Chang Jian, an economist at Barclays Capital, said.