China’s economy grew 4.8 per cent year on year in the third quarter of 2025, staying in line with expectations and bringing the country closer to achieving its annual target despite rising external uncertainties.
Advertisement
The closely watched figure for gross domestic product, released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday, came in just above the 4.76 per cent forecast in a survey of economists by Chinese financial data provider Wind.
It marked a deceleration from the 5.2 per cent expansion recorded in the second quarter and the 5.4 per cent observed in the first.
This brought China’s economic growth over the first three quarters to 5.2 per cent, according to the bureau. Beijing has set its annual target for GDP growth at “around 5 per cent”.
The numbers were released on the opening day of the hotly anticipated fourth plenum, where President Xi Jinping and the rest of the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee are expected to discuss an outline for the 15th five-year plan – a document that will summarise the country’s broad socio-economic goals for the next half-decade.
Advertisement
Meanwhile, the world’s second-largest economy continues to grapple with other challenges to sustained growth, including renewed trade tensions with the United States, weak domestic demand and a persistent slump in the property market.