Slowing property and construction sectors drag on China’s third-quarter GDP
Beijing — China posted relatively solid economic growth in the third quarter, driven by a stronger services industry, although there were signs of weakness in real estate and construction as property cooling measures start to bite, data showed on Friday. China’s property sector grew 3.9% in the quarter from a year earlier, decelerating from 6.2% in the second quarter and the slowest pace in nearly two years, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a more detailed breakdown of third-quarter GDP data issued on Thursday. Growth in construction activity slowed from 5.4% in the second quarter to 4%, the weakest expansion since the fourth quarter of 2000, National Bureau of Statistics data showed. Property and construction together account for 13.3% of the economy, with property alone directly affecting 40 other industries. Softening in those sectors appeared to be the main drag on otherwise fairly resilient China data on Thursday. Third-quarter growth eased only slightly to 6.8% ...
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