China's economic growth has slowed for the seventh quarter in a row, rising by 7.4 percent year on year in the third quarter of this year, China's National Bureau of Statistics has announced.
The third quarter GDP growth figure was lower than the 7.6 percent growth seen in the second quarter and the 8.1 percent growth in the first quarter, but remained in line with economists' predictions of 7.4-7.5 percent growth for the third quarter.
China has reduced its growth target for 2012 to 7.5 percent amid sluggish demand and global economic difficulties.
On the postive side, China's total retail sales in September rose to RMB 1.82 trillion, up 14.2 percent year on year, while industrial value-added output increased by 9.2 percent year on year in the given month, up 0.3 percentage points compared to August, as announced by the National Bureau of Statistics.