China’s third quarter growth misses expectations at 6.5%

China has reported its slowest quarterly growth rate since the global financial crisis.

The growth figure for the July to September quarter was 6.5% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The result fell short of analyst forecasts of 6.6%.

Policymakers have moved to support the cooling economy in recent months.

China faces rising economic challenges including high debt levels and an intensifying trade battle with the US.

The impact of the trade dispute with the US is expected to weigh on growth figures in the coming months.

Reuters analysts had forecast growth at 6.6% in the three months to September from a year earlier, the weakest pace since the first quarter of 2009.

The numbers were still in line with the government’s full-year target of about 6.5%.

A ‘war on two fronts’

Analysis: Karishma Vaswani, Asia business correspondent

As one China observer told me during a recent trip to Beijing, the country was not expecting to fight a trade war at a time that it was also trying to manage systemic risks in the economy.

They don’t have a lot of options on the table. The country is saddled with extraordinary levels of debt so policymakers are reluctant to take measures to stimulate the economy the way they did after 2008.

It means that Beijing is fighting a war on two fronts, without all of the cavalry at its disposal. And it’s fighting an increasingly unpredictable and volatile enemy, in the form of an aggressive US administration.

None of which bodes well for China’s economic outlook.

Read more from Karishma.