Chinese GDP growth holds up in third quarter

Service sector growth appeared to limit the extent to which China's economy cooled off in the third quarter, the latest round of government data revealed.

Chinese gross domestic product expanded at a 6.9% year-on-year clip over the three months ending in September, down below the 7% pace seen in the first two quarters of 2015, according to the country's statistics bureau, for the first time since the financial crisis.

Economists had pencilled in growth of 6.8%.

Nonetheless, the breakdown of the data suggested that stronger growth on the services side of the economy mostly offset weaker factory output, analysts at Capital Economics said in a research note sent to clients.

Such a divergence was indeed obvious in the latest monthly activity data.

Figures released on Monday revealed that industrial output slowed down to a 5.7% year-on-year pace, down from 6,1% in the month before (consensus: 6%). In parallel, fixed asset investment was up by 10.3% for the first nine months of 2015, coming in well below the 10.8% projected by economists.

In nominal terms, growth in retail sales on the other hand picked up to a 10.9% year-on-year pace, from 10.8% (consensus: 10.8%).

Property sales growth remained buoyant and there were signs that property developers were beginning to step-up construction, the think tank added.

"With stronger fiscal spending in the pipeline and credit growth accelerating, we continue to see some potential upside to growth over the coming quarters," Capital Economics said.